The Short Second Life ofBree Tanner

The Short SecondLife of Bree TannerThe Short Second Life of Bree Tanner

The Short SecondLife of Bree Tanner

INTRODUCTION

No two writers go about things in exactly thesame way. We all are inspired and motivated indifferent ways; we have our own reasons whysome characters stay with us while othersdisappear into a backlog of neglected files.Personally, I’ve never figured out why some of mycharacters take on strong lives of their own, butI’m always happy when they do. Those charactersare the most effortless to write, and so their storiesare usually the ones that get finished.

Bree is one of those characters, and she’sthe chief reason why this story is now in yourhands, rather than lost in the maze of forgottenfolders inside my computer. (The two otherreasons are named Diego and Fred.) I startedthinking about Bree while I was editing Eclipse.

Editing, not writing—when I was writing the firstdraft of Eclipse, I had first-person-perspectiveblinders on; anything that Bella couldn’t see orhear or feel or taste or touch was irrelevant. Thatstory was her experience only.

The next step in the editing process was tostep away from Bella and see how the storyflowed. My editor, Rebecca Davis, was a hugepart of that process, and she had a lot of questionsfor me about the things Bella didn’t know and howwe could make the right parts of that story clearer.Because Bree is the only newborn Bella sees,Bree’s was the perspective that I first gravitatedtoward as I considered what was going on behindthe scenes. I started thinking about living in thebasement with the newborns and huntingtraditional vampire-style. I imagined the world asBree understood it. And it was easy to do that.From the start Bree was very clear as a character,and some of her friends also sprang to lifeeffortlessly. This is the way it usually works for me:I try to write a short synopsis of what is happening

in some other part of the story, and I end upjotting down dialogue. In this case, instead of asynopsis, I found myself writing a day in Bree’slife.

Writing Bree was the first time I’d steppedinto the shoes of a narrator who was a “real”vampire—a hunter, a monster. I got to lookthrough her red eyes at us humans; suddenly wewere pathetic and weak, easy prey, of noimportance whatsoever except as a tasty snack. Ifelt what it was like to be alone while surroundedby enemies, always on guard, never sure ofanything except that her life was always in danger.I got to submerge myself in a totally differentbreed of vampires: newborns. The newborn lifewas something I hadn’t ever gotten to explore—even when Bella finally became a vampire. Bellawas never a newborn like Bree was a newborn. Itwas exciting and dark and, ultimately, tragic. Thecloser I got to the inevitable end, the more Iwished I’d concluded Eclipse just slightlydifferently.

I wonder how you will feel about Bree.She’s such a small, seemingly trivial character inEclipse. She lives for only five minutes of Bella’sperspective. And yet her story is so important toan understanding of the novel. When you read theEclipse scene in which Bella stares at Bree,assessing her as a possible future, did you everthink about what has brought Bree to that point intime? As Bree glares back, did you wonder whatBella and the Cullens look like to her? Probablynot. But even if you did, I’ll bet you never guessedher secrets.

I hope you end up caring about Bree asmuch as I do, though that’s kind of a cruel wish.You know this: it doesn’t end well for her. But atleast you will know the whole story. And that noperspective is ever really trivial.

Enjoy,Stephenie

The Short SecondLife of Bree TannerThe Short Second Life of Bree

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THE NEWSPAPER HEADLINE GLAREDAT ME FROM a little metal vending machine:SEATTLE UNDER SIEGE—DEATH TOLLRISES AGAIN. I hadn’t seen this one yet. Somepaperboy must have just restocked the machine.Lucky for him, he was nowhere around now.

Great. Riley was going to blow a gasket. Iwould make sure I wasn’t within reach when hesaw this paper. Let him rip somebody else’s armoff.

I stood in the shadow behind the corner of ashabby three-story building, trying to beinconspicuous while I waited for someone to makea decision. Not wanting to meet anyone’s eyes, I

stared at the wall beside me instead. The groundfloor of the building housed a record shop that hadlong since closed; the windows, lost to weather orstreet violence, were filled in with plywood. Overthe top were apartments—empty, I guessed, sincethe normal sounds of sleeping humans wereabsent. I wasn’t surprised—the place looked likeit would collapse in a stiff wind. The buildings onthe other side of the dark, narrow street were justas wrecked.

The normal scene for a night out on the town.I didn’t want to speak up and draw attention,

but I wished somebody would decide something. Iwas really thirsty, and I didn’t care much whetherwe went right or left or over the roof. I justwanted to find some unlucky people who wouldn’teven have enough time to think wrong place,wrong time.

Unfortunately tonight Riley’d sent me outwith two of the most useless vampires in existence.Riley never seemed to care who he sent out inhunting groups. Or particularly bugged when

sending out the wrong people together meantfewer people coming home. Tonight I was stuckwith Kevin and some blond kid whose name Ididn’t know. They both belonged to Raoul’s gang,so it went without saying that they were stupid.And dangerous. But right now, mostly stupid.

Instead of picking a direction for our hunt,suddenly they were in the middle of an argumentover whose favorite superhero would be a betterhunter. The nameless blond was demonstrating hiscase for Spider-Man now, skittering up the brickwall of the alley while humming the cartoon themesong. I sighed in frustration. Were we ever goingto hunt?

A little flicker of movement to my left caughtmy eye. It was the other one Riley had sent out inthis hunting group, Diego. I didn’t know muchabout him, just that he was older than most of theothers. Riley’s right-hand man was the word. Thatdidn’t make me like him any more than the othermorons.

Diego was looking at me. He must have

heard the sigh. I looked away.Keep your head down and your mouth shut

—that was the way to stay alive in Riley’s crowd.“Spider-Man is such a whiny loser,” Kevin

called up to the blond kid. “I’ll show you how areal superhero hunts.” He grinned wide. His teethflashed in the glare of a streetlight.

Kevin jumped into the middle of the streetjust as the lights from a car swung around toilluminate the cracked pavement with a blue-whitegleam. He flexed his arms back, then pulled themslowly together like a pro wrestler showing off.The car came on, probably expecting him to getthe hell out of the way like a normal person would.Like he should.

“Hulk mad!” Kevin bellowed. “Hulk…SMASH!”

He leaped forward to meet the car before itcould brake, grabbed its front bumper, and flippedit over his head so that it struck the pavementupside down with a squeal of bending metal andshattering glass. Inside, a woman started

screaming.“Oh man,” Diego said, shaking his head. He

was pretty, with dark, dense, curly hair, big, wideeyes, and really full lips, but then, who wasn’tpretty? Even Kevin and the rest of Raoul’smorons were pretty. “Kevin, we’re supposed tobe laying low. Riley said—”

“Riley said!” Kevin mimicked in a harshsoprano. “Get a spine, Diego. Riley’s not here.”

Kevin sprang over the upside-down Hondaand punched out the driver’s side window, whichhad somehow stayed intact up to that point. Hefished through the shattered glass and the deflatingair bag for the driver.

I turned my back and held my breath, tryingmy hardest to hold on to the ability to think.

I couldn’t watch Kevin feed. I was toothirsty for that, and I really didn’t want to pick afight with him. I so did not need to be on Raoul’shit list.

The blond kid didn’t have the same issues.He pushed off from the bricks overhead and

landed lightly behind me. I heard him and Kevinsnarling at each other, and then a wet tearingsound as the woman’s screams cut off. Probablythem ripping her in half.

I tried not to think about it. But I could feelthe heat and hear the dripping behind me, and itmade my throat burn so bad even though I wasn’tbreathing.

“I’m outta here,” I heard Diego mutter.He ducked into a crevice between the dark

buildings, and I followed right on his heels. If Ididn’t get away from here fast, I’d be squabblingwith Raoul’s goons over a body that couldn’t havehad much blood left in it by now anyway. Andthen maybe I’d be the one who didn’t comehome.

Ugh, but my throat burned! I clamped myteeth together to keep from screaming in pain.

Diego darted through a trash-filled side alley,and then—when he hit the dead end—up the wall.I dug my fingers into the crevices between thebricks and hauled myself up after him.

On the rooftop, Diego took off, leapinglightly across the other roofs toward the lightsshimmering off the sound. I stayed close. I wasyounger than he was, and therefore stronger—itwas a good thing we younger ones were strongest,or we wouldn’t have lived through our first weekin Riley’s house. I could have passed him easy,but I wanted to see where he was going, and Ididn’t want to have him behind me.

Diego didn’t stop for miles; we were almostto the industrial docks. I could hear him mutteringunder his breath.

“Idiots! Like Riley wouldn’t give usinstructions for a good reason. Self-preservation,for example. Is an ounce of common sense somuch to ask for?”

“Hey,” I called. “Are we going to huntanytime soon? My throat’s on fire here.”

Diego landed on the edge of a wide factoryroof and spun around. I jumped back a few yards,on my guard, but he didn’t make an aggressivemove toward me.

“Yeah,” he said. “I just wanted somedistance between me and the lunatics.”

He smiled, all friendly, and I stared at him.This Diego guy wasn’t like the others. He

was kind of… calm, I guess was the word.Normal. Not normal now, but normal before. Hiseyes were a darker red than mine. He must havebeen around for a while, like I’d heard.

From the street below came the sounds ofnighttime in a slummier part of Seattle. A few cars,music with heavy bass, a couple of people walkingwith nervous, fast steps, some drunk bum singingoff-key in the distance.

“You’re Bree, right?” Diego asked. “One ofthe newbies.”

I didn’t like that. Newbie. Whatever. “Yeah,I’m Bree. But I didn’t come in with the last group.I’m almost three months old.”

“Pretty slick for a three-monther,” he said.“Not many would have been able to leave thescene of the accident like that.” He said it like acompliment, like he was really impressed.

“Didn’t want to mix it up with Raoul’sfreaks.”

He nodded. “Amen, sister. Their kind ain’tnothing but bad news.”

Weird. Diego was weird. How he soundedlike a person having a regular old conversation.No hostility, no suspicion. Like he wasn’t thinkingabout how easy or hard it might be to kill me rightnow. He was just talking to me.

“How long have you been with Riley?” Iasked curiously.

“Going on eleven months now.”“Wow! That’s older than Raoul.”Diego rolled his eyes and spit venom over

the edge of the building. “Yeah, I remember whenRiley brought that trash in. Things just kept gettingworse after that.”

I was quiet for a moment, wondering if hethought everyone younger than himself was trash.Not that I cared. I didn’t care what anybodythought anymore. Didn’t have to. Like Riley said, Iwas a god now. Stronger, faster, better. Nobody

else counted.Then Diego whistled low under his breath.“There we go. Just takes a little brains and

patience.” He pointed down and across the street.Half-hidden around the edge of a purple-

black alley, a man was cussing at a woman andslapping her while another woman watchedsilently. From their clothes, I guessed that it was apimp and two of his employees.

This was what Riley had told us to do. Huntthe dregs. Take the humans that no one was goingto miss, the ones who weren’t headed home to awaiting family, the ones who wouldn’t be reportedmissing.

It was the same way he chose us. Meals andgods, both coming from the dregs.

Unlike some of the others, I still did whatRiley told me to do. Not because I liked him. Thatfeeling was long gone. It was because what he toldus sounded right. How did it make sense to callattention to the fact that a bunch of new vampireswere claiming Seattle as their hunting ground?

How was that going to help us?I didn’t even believe in vampires before I

was one. So if the rest of the world didn’t believein vampires, then the rest of the vampires must behunting smart, the way Riley said to do it. Theyprobably had a good reason.

And like Diego’d said, hunting smart justtook a little brains and patience.

Of course, we all slipped up a lot, and Rileywould read the papers and groan and yell at usand break stuff—like Raoul’s favorite video-gamesystem. Then Raoul would get mad and takesomebody else apart and burn him up. Then Rileywould be pissed off and he’d do another search toconfiscate all the lighters and matches. A fewrounds of this, and then Riley would bring homeanother handful of vampirized dregs kids toreplace the ones he’d lost. It was an endless cycle.

Diego inhaled through his nose—a big, longpull—and I watched his body change. Hecrouched on the roof, one hand gripping the edge.All that strange friendliness disappeared, and he

was a hunter.That was something I recognized, something

I was comfortable with because I understood it.I turned off my brain. It was time to hunt. I

took a deep breath, drawing in the scent of theblood inside the humans below. They weren’t theonly humans around, but they were the closest.Who you were going to hunt was the kind ofdecision you had to make before you scented yourprey. It was too late now to choose anything.

Diego dropped from the roof edge, out ofsight. The sound of his landing was too low tocatch the attention of the crying prostitute, thezoned-out prostitute, or the angry pimp.

A low growl ripped from between my teeth.Mine. The blood was mine. The fire in my throatflared and I couldn’t think of anything else.

I flipped myself off the roof, spinning acrossthe street so that I landed right next to the cryingblonde. I could feel Diego close behind me, so Igrowled a warning at him while I caught thesurprised girl by the hair. I yanked her to the alley

wall, putting my back against it. Defensive, just incase.

Then I forgot all about Diego, because Icould feel the heat under her skin, hear the soundof her pulse thudding close to the surface.

She opened her mouth to scream, but myteeth crushed her windpipe before a sound couldcome out. There was just the gurgle of air andblood in her lungs, and the low moans I could notcontrol.

The blood was warm and sweet. It quenchedthe fire in my throat, calmed the nagging, itchingemptiness in my stomach. I sucked and gulped,only vaguely aware of anything else.

I heard the same noise from Diego—he hadthe man. The other woman was unconscious onthe ground. Neither had made any noise. Diegowas good.

The problem with humans was that they justnever had enough blood in them. It seemed likeonly seconds later the girl ran dry. I rattled herlimp body in frustration. Already my throat was

beginning to burn again.I threw the spent body to the ground and

crouched against the wall, wondering if I couldgrab the unconscious girl and make off with herbefore Diego could catch up to me.

Diego was already finished with the man. Helooked at me with an expression that I could onlydescribe as… sympathetic. But I could have beendead wrong. I couldn’t remember anyone evergiving me sympathy before, so I wasn’t positivewhat it looked like.

“Go for it,” he told me, nodding to the limpgirl on the ground.

“Are you kidding me?”“Naw, I’m good for now. We’ve got time to

hunt some more tonight.”Watching him carefully for some sign of a

trick, I darted forward and snagged the girl. Diegomade no move to stop me. He turned awayslightly and looked up at the black sky.

I sank my teeth into her neck, keeping myeyes on him. This one was even better than the

last. Her blood was entirely clean. The blondegirl’s blood had the bitter aftertaste that came withdrugs—I was so used to that, I’d barely noticed.It was rare for me to get really clean blood,because I followed the dregs rule. Diego seemedto follow the rules, too. He must have smelledwhat he was giving up.

Why had he done it?When the second body was empty, my

throat felt better. There was a lot of blood in mysystem. I probably wouldn’t really burn for a fewdays.

Diego was still waiting, whistling quietlythrough his teeth. When I let the body fall to theground with a thud, he turned back to me andsmiled.

“Um, thanks,” I said.He nodded. “You looked like you needed it

more than me. I remember how hard it is in thebeginning.”

“Does it get easier?”He shrugged. “In some ways.”

We looked at each other for a second.“Why don’t we dump these bodies in the

sound?” he suggested.I bent down, grabbed the dead blonde, and

slung her limp body over my shoulder. I was aboutto get the other one, but Diego was there beforeme, the pimp already on his back.

“I got it,” he said.I followed him up the alley wall, and then we

swung across the girders under the freeway. Thelights from the cars below didn’t touch us. Ithought how stupid people were, how oblivious,and I was glad I wasn’t one of the clueless.

Hidden in the darkness, we made our way toan empty dock, closed for the night. Diego didn’thesitate at the end of the concrete, he just jumpedright over the edge with his bulky burden anddisappeared into the water. I slid in after him.

He swam as sleek and quick as a shark,shooting deeper and farther out into the blacksound. He stopped suddenly when he found whathe was looking for—a huge, slime-covered

boulder on the ocean floor, sea stars and garbageclinging to its sides. We had to be more than ahundred feet deep—to a human, it would haveseemed pitch-black here. Diego let go of hisbodies. They swayed slowly in the current besidehim while he shoved his hand into the mucky sandat the base of the rock. After a second he found ahold and ripped the boulder up from its restingspot. The weight of it drove him waist-deep intothe dark seafloor.

He looked up and nodded to me.I swam down to him, hooking his bodies with

one hand on my way. I shoved the blonde into theblack hole under the rock, then pushed the secondgirl and the pimp in after her. I kicked them lightlyto make sure they were in, and then got out of theway. Diego let the boulder fall. It wobbled a little,adjusting to the newly uneven foundation. Hekicked his way out of the muck, swam to the topof the boulder, and then pushed it down, grindingthe obstructions flat underneath.

He swam back a few yards to view his

work.Perfect, I mouthed. These three bodies

would never resurface. Riley would never hear astory about them on the news.

He grinned and held up his hand.It took me a minute to understand that he

was looking for a high five. Hesitantly, I swamforward, tapped my palm to his, then kickedaway, putting some distance between us.

Diego got a weird expression on his face,and then he shot to the surface like a bullet.

I darted up after him, confused. When Ibroke through to the air, he was almost chokingon his laughter.

“What?”He couldn’t answer me for a minute. Finally

he blurted out, “Worst high five ever.”I sniffed, irritated. “Couldn’t be sure you

weren’t just going to rip my arm off or something.”Diego snorted. “I wouldn’t do that.”“Anyone else would,” I countered.“True, that,” he agreed, suddenly not as

amused. “You up for a little more hunting?”“Do you have to ask?”We came out of the water under a bridge

and lucked right into two homeless guys sleepingin ancient, filthy sleeping bags on top of a sharedmattress of old newspapers. Neither one of themwoke up. Their blood was soured by alcohol, butstill better than nothing. We buried them in thesound, too, under a different rock.

“Well, I’m good for a few weeks,” Diegosaid when we were out of the water again,dripping on the end of another empty dock.

I sighed. “I guess that’s the easier part, right?I’ll be burning again in a couple of days. And thenRiley will probably send me out with more ofRaoul’s mutants again.”

“I can come with you, if you want. Rileypretty much lets me do what I want.”

I thought about the offer, suspicious for asecond. But Diego really didn’t seem like any ofthe others. I felt different with him. Like I didn’tneed to watch my back so much.

“I’d like that,” I admitted. It felt off to saythis. Too vulnerable or something.

But Diego just said “cool” and smiled at me.“So how come Riley gives you such a long

leash?” I asked, wondering about the relationshipthere. The more time I spent with Diego, the less Icould picture him being in tight with Riley. Diegowas so… friendly. Nothing like Riley. But maybeit was an opposites-attract thing.

“Riley knows he can trust me to clean up mymesses. Speaking of which, do you mind running aquick errand?”

I was starting to be entertained by thisstrange boy. Curious about him. I wanted to seewhat he would do.

“Sure,” I said.He bounded across the dock toward the

road that ran along the waterfront. I followedafter. I caught the scent of a few humans, but Iknew it was too dark and we were too fast forthem to see us.

He chose to travel across rooftops again.

After a few jumps, I recognized both our scents.He was retracing our earlier path.

And then we were back to that first alley,where Kevin and the other guy had gotten stupidwith the car.

“Unbelievable,” Diego growled.Kevin and Co. had just left, it appeared.

Two other cars were stacked on top of the first,and a handful of bystanders had been added to thebody count. The cops weren’t here yet—becauseanyone who might have reported the mayhem wasalready dead.

“Help me sort this out?” Diego asked.“Okay.”We dropped down, and Diego quickly threw

the cars into a new arrangement, so that it sort oflooked like they’d hit each other rather than beenpiled up by a giant tantrum-throwing baby. Igrabbed the two dry, lifeless bodies abandoned onthe pavement and stuffed them under the apparentsite of impact.

“Bad accident,” I commented.

Diego grinned. He took a lighter out of aziplock from his pocket and started igniting theclothes of the victims. I grabbed my own lighter—Riley reissued these when we went hunting; Kevinshould have used his—and got to work on theupholstery. The bodies, dried out and laced withflammable venom, blazed up quickly.

“Get back,” Diego warned, and I saw that hehad the first car’s gas hatch open and the lidscrewed off the tank. I jumped up the closest wall,perching a story above to watch. He took a fewsteps back and lit a match. With perfect aim, hetossed it into the small hole. In the same second,he leaped up beside me.

The boom of the explosion shook the wholestreet. Lights started going on around the corner.

“Well done,” I said.“Thanks for your help. Back to Riley’s?”I frowned. Riley’s house was the last place I

wanted to spend the rest of my night. I didn’t wantto see Raoul’s stupid face or listen to the constantshrieking and fighting. I didn’t want to have to grit

my teeth and hide out behind Freaky Fred so thatpeople would leave me alone. And I was out ofbooks.

“We’ve got some time,” Diego said, readingmy expression. “We don’t have to go right away.”

“I could use some reading material.”“And I could use some new music.” He

grinned. “Let’s go shopping.”We moved quickly through town—over

rooftops again and then darting through shadowystreets when the buildings got farther apart—to afriendlier neighborhood. It didn’t take long to finda strip mall with one of the big chain bookstores. Isnapped the lock on the roof access hatch and letus in. The store was empty, the only alarms on thewindows and doors. I went straight to the H’s,while Diego headed to the music section in theback. I’d just finished with Hale. I took the nextdozen books in line; that would keep me a coupleof days.

I looked around for Diego and found himsitting at one of the café tables, studying the backs

of his new CDs. I paused, then joined him.This felt strange because it was familiar in a

haunting, uncomfortable way. I had sat like thisbefore—across a table from someone. I’d chattedcasually with that person, thinking about things thatwere not life and death or thirst and blood. Butthat had been in a different, blurry lifetime.

The last time I’d sat at a table with someone,that someone had been Riley. It was hard toremember that night for a lot of reasons.

“So how come I never notice you around thehouse?” Diego asked abruptly. “Where do youhide?”

I laughed and grimaced at the same time. “Iusually kick it behind wherever Freaky Fred ishanging out.”

His nose wrinkled. “Seriously? How do youstand that?”

“You get used to it. It’s not so bad behindhim as it is in front. Anyway, it’s the best hidingplace I’ve found. Nobody gets close to Fred.”

Diego nodded, still looking kind of grossed

out. “That’s true. It’s a way to stay alive.”I shrugged.“Did you know that Fred is one of Riley’s

favorites?” Diego asked.“Really? How?” No one could stand Freaky

Fred. I was the only one who tried, and that wassolely out of self-preservation.

Diego leaned toward me conspiratorially. Iwas already so used to his strange way that Ididn’t even flinch.

“I heard him on the phone with her.”I shuddered.“I know,” he said, sounding sympathetic

again. Of course, it wasn’t weird that we couldsympathize with each other when it came to her.“This was a few months back. Anyway, Riley wastalking about Fred, all excited. From what theywere saying, I guess that some vampires can dothings. More than what normal vampires can do, Imean. And that’s good—something she’s lookingfor. Vampires with skillzzz.”

He pulled the Z sound out, so I could hear

how he was spelling it in his head.“What kinds of skills?”“All kinds of stuff, it sounds like. Mind

reading and tracking and even seeing the future.”“Get out.”“I’m not kidding. I guess Fred can sort of

repel people on purpose. It’s all in our heads,though. He makes us repulsed at the thought ofbeing near him.”

I frowned. “How is that a good thing?”“Keeps him alive, doesn’t it? Guess it keeps

you alive, too.”I nodded. “Guess so. Did he say anything

about anyone else?” I tried to think of anythingstrange I’d seen or felt, but Fred was one of akind. The clowns in the alley tonight pretending tobe superheroes hadn’t been doing anything therest of us couldn’t do.

“He talked about Raoul,” Diego said, thecorner of his mouth twisting down.

“What skill does Raoul have? Super-stupidity?”

Diego snorted. “Definitely that. But Rileythinks he’s got some kind of magnetism—peopleare drawn to him, they follow him.”

“Only the mentally challenged.”“Yeah, Riley mentioned that. Didn’t seem to

be effective on the”—he broke out a decentimpression of Riley’s voice—“‘tamer kids.’”

“Tame?”“I inferred that he meant people like us, who

are able to think occasionally.”I didn’t like being called tame. It didn’t

sound like a good thing when you put it that way.Diego’s way sounded better.

“It was like there was a reason Riley neededRaoul to lead—something’s coming, I think.”

A weird tingle spasmed along my spine whenhe said that, and I sat up straighter. “Like what?”

“Do you ever think about why Riley isalways after us to keep a low profile?”

I hesitated for half a second beforeanswering. This wasn’t the line of inquiry I wouldhave expected from Riley’s right-hand man.

Almost like he was questioning what Riley hadtold us. Unless Diego was asking this for Riley,like a spy. Finding out what the “kids” thought ofhim. But it didn’t feel like that. Diego’s dark redeyes were open and confiding. And why wouldRiley care? Maybe the way the others talkedabout Diego wasn’t based on anything real. Justgossip.

I answered him truthfully. “Yeah, actually Iwas just thinking about that.”

“We aren’t the only vampires in the world,”Diego said solemnly.

“I know. Riley says stuff sometimes. Butthere can’t be too many. I mean, wouldn’t wehave noticed, before?”

Diego nodded. “That’s what I think, too.Which is why it’s pretty weird that she keepsmaking more of us, don’t you think?”

I frowned. “Huh. Because it’s not like Rileyactually likes us or anything….” I paused again,waiting to see if he would contradict me. Hedidn’t. He just waited, nodding slightly in

agreement, so I continued. “And she hasn’t evenintroduced herself. You’re right. I hadn’t looked atit that way. Well, I hadn’t really thought about it atall. But then, what do they want us for?”

Diego raised one eyebrow. “Wanna hearwhat I think?”

I nodded warily. But my anxiety had nothingto do with him now.

“Like I said, something is coming. I think shewants protection, and she put Riley in charge ofcreating the front line.”

I thought this through, my spine pricklingagain. “Why wouldn’t they tell us? Shouldn’t webe, like, on the lookout or something?”

“That would make sense,” he agreed.We looked at each other in silence for a few

long-seeming seconds. I had nothing more, and itdidn’t look like he did, either.

Finally I grimaced and said, “I don’t know ifI buy it—the part about Raoul being good foranything, that is.”

Diego laughed. “Hard to argue that one.”

Then he glanced out the windows at the dark earlymorning. “Out of time. Better head back beforewe turn into crispies.”

“Ashes, ashes, we all fall down,” I sangunder my breath as I got to my feet and collectedmy pile.

Diego chuckled.We made one more quick stop on our way

—hit the empty Target next door for big ziplocksand two backpacks. I double-bagged all mybooks. Water-damaged pages annoyed me.

Then we mostly roof-topped it back to thewater. The sky was just faintly starting to gray upin the east. We slipped into the sound right underthe noses of two oblivious night watchmen by thebig ferry—good thing for them I was full or theywould have been too close for my self-control—and then raced through the murky water backtoward Riley’s place.

At first I didn’t know it was a race. I wasjust swimming fast because the sky was gettinglighter. I didn’t usually push the time like this. If I

were being honest with myself, I’d pretty muchturned into a huge vampire nerd. I followed therules, I didn’t cause trouble, I hung out with themost unpopular kid in the group, and I always gothome early.

But then Diego really kicked it into gear. Hegot a few lengths ahead of me, turned back with asmile that said, what, can’t you keep up? and thenstarted booking it again.

Well, I wasn’t taking that. I couldn’t reallyremember if I’d been the competitive type before—it all seemed so far away and unimportant—butmaybe I was, because I responded right away tothe challenge. Diego was a good swimmer, but Iwas way stronger, especially after just feeding.

See ya, I mouthed as I passed him, but Iwasn’t sure he saw.

I lost him back in the dark water, and Ididn’t waste time looking to see by how much Iwas winning. I just jetted through the sound till I hitthe edge of the island where the most recent of ourhomes was located. The last one had been a big

cabin in the middle of Snowville-Nowhere on theside of some mountain in the Cascades. Like thelast one, this house was remote, had a bigbasement, and had recently deceased owners.

I raced up onto the shallow stony beach andthen dug my fingers into the sandstone bluff andflew up. I heard Diego come out of the water justas I gripped the trunk of an overhanging pine andflipped myself over the cliff edge.

Two things caught my attention as I landedgently on the balls of my feet. One: it was reallylight out. Two: the house was gone.

Well, not entirely gone. Some of it was stillvisible, but the space the house had once occupiedwas empty. The roof had collapsed into ragged,angular wooden lace, charred black, sagginglower than the front door had been.

The sun was rising fast. The black pine treeswere showing hints of evergreen. Soon the palertips would stand out against the dark, and at aboutthat point I would be dead.

Or really dead, or whatever. This second

thirsty, superhero life would go up in a suddenburst of flames. And I could only imagine that theburst would be very, very painful.

This wasn’t the first time I’d seen our housedestroyed—with all the fights and fires in thebasements, most of them lasted only a few weeks—but it was the first time I’d come across thescene of destruction with the first faint rays ofsunlight threatening.

I sucked in a gasp of shock as Diego landedbeside me.

“Maybe burrow under the roof?” Iwhispered. “Would that be safe enough or—?”

“Don’t freak out, Bree,” Diego said,sounding too calm. “I know a place. C’mon.”

He did a very graceful backflip off the bluffedge.

I didn’t think the water would be enough of afilter to block the sun. But maybe we couldn’tburn if we were submerged? It seemed like areally poor plan to me.

However, instead of tunneling under the

burned-out hull of the wrecked house, I dove offthe cliff behind him. I wasn’t sure of my reasoning,which was a strange feeling. Usually I did what Ialways did—followed the routine, did what madesense.

I caught up to Diego in the water. He wasracing again, but with no nonsense this time.Racing the sun.

He whipped around a point on the little islandand then dove deep. I was surprised he didn’t hitthe rocky floor of the sound, and more surprisedwhen I could feel the blast of warmer currentflowing from what I had thought was no more thanan outcropping of rock.

Smart of Diego to have a place like this.Sure, it wasn’t going to be fun to sit in anunderwater cavern all day—not breathing startedto irritate after a few hours—but it was better thanexploding into ashes. I should have been thinkinglike Diego was. Thinking about something otherthan blood, that is. I should have been preparedfor the unexpected.

Diego kept going through a narrow crevice inthe rocks. It was black as ink in here. Safe. Icouldn’t swim anymore—the space was too tight—so I scrambled through like Diego, climbingthrough the twisting space. I kept waiting for himto stop, but he didn’t. Suddenly I realized that wereally were going up. And then I heard Diego hitthe surface.

I was out a half second after he was.The cave was no more than a small hole, a

burrow about the size of a Volkswagen Beetle,though not as tall as that. A second crawl spaceled out the back, and I could taste the fresh aircoming from that direction. I could see the shapeof Diego’s fingers repeated again and again in thetexture of the limestone walls.

“Nice place,” I said.Diego smiled. “Better than Freaky Fred’s

backside.”“I can’t argue with that. Um. Thanks.”“You’re welcome.”We looked at each other in the dark for a

minute. His face was smooth and calm. Withanyone else, Kevin or Kristie or any of the others,this would have been terrifying—the constrictedspace, the forced closeness. The way I couldsmell his scent on every side of me. That couldhave meant a quick and painful death at anysecond. But Diego was so composed. Not likeanyone else.

“How old are you?” he asked abruptly.“Three months. I told you that.”“That’s not what I meant. Um, how old were

you? I guess that’s the right way to ask.”I leaned away, uncomfortable, when I

realized he was talking about human stuff. Nobodytalked about that. Nobody wanted to think aboutit. But I didn’t want to end the conversation,either. Just having a conversation at all wassomething new and different. I hesitated, and hewaited with a curious expression.

“I was, um, I guess fifteen. Almost sixteen. Ican’t remember the day… was I past mybirthday?” I tried to think about it, but those last

hungry weeks were a big blur, and it hurt my headin a weird way to try to clear them up. I shook myhead, let it go. “How about you?”

“I was just past my eighteenth,” Diego said.“So close.”

“Close to what?”“Getting out,” he said, but he didn’t continue.

There was an awkward silence for a minute, andthen he changed the subject.

“You’ve done really well since you got here,”he said, his eyes sweeping across my crossedarms, my folded legs. “You’ve survived—avoidedthe wrong kind of attention, kept intact.”

I shrugged and then yanked my left t-shirtsleeve up to my shoulder so he could see the thin,ragged line that circled my arm.

“Got this ripped off once,” I admitted. “Got itback before Jen could toast it. Riley showed mehow to put it back on.”

Diego smiled wryly and touched his rightknee with one finger. His dark jeans covered thescar that must have been there. “It happens to

everybody.”“Ouch,” I said.He nodded. “Seriously. But like I was saying

before, you’re a pretty decent vampire.”“Am I supposed to say thanks?”“I’m just thinking out loud, trying to make

sense of things.”“What things?”He frowned a little. “What’s really going on.

What Riley’s up to. Why he keeps bringing themost random kids to her. Why it doesn’t seem tomatter to Riley if it’s someone like you or if it’ssomeone like that idiot Kevin.”

It sounded like he didn’t know Riley anybetter than I did.

“What do you mean, someone like me?” Iasked.

“You’re the kind that Riley should be lookingfor—the smart ones—not just these stupid gang-bangers that Raoul keeps bringing in. I bet youweren’t some junkie ho when you were human.”

I shifted uneasily at the last word. Diego kept

waiting for my answer, like he hadn’t said anythingweird. I took a deep breath and thought back.

“I was close enough,” I admitted after a fewseconds of his patient watching. “Not there yet,but in a few more weeks…” I shrugged. “Youknow, I don’t remember much, but I doremember thinking there was nothing morepowerful on this planet than just plain old hunger.Turns out, thirst is worst.”

He laughed. “Sing it, sister.”“What about you? You weren’t a troubled

teen runaway like the rest of us?”“Oh, I was troubled, all right.” He stopped

talking.But I could sit around and wait for the

answers to inappropriate questions, too. I juststared at him.

He sighed. The scent of his breath was nice.Everybody smelled sweet, but Diego had a littlesomething extra—some spice like cinnamon orcloves.

“I tried to stay away from all that junk.

Studied hard. I was gonna get out of the ghetto,you know. Go to college. Make something ofmyself. But there was a guy—not much differentthan Raoul. Join or die, that was his motto. Iwasn’t having any, so I stayed away from hisgroup. I was careful. Stayed alive.” He stopped,closing his eyes.

I wasn’t done being pushy. “And?”“My kid brother wasn’t as careful.”I was about to ask if his brother had joined

or died, but the expression on his face madeasking unnecessary. I looked away, not sure howto respond. I couldn’t really understand his loss,the pain it still clearly caused him to feel. I hadn’tleft anything behind that I still missed. Was that thedifference? Was that why he dwelled on memoriesthat the rest of us shunned?

I still didn’t see how Riley came into this.Riley and the cheeseburger of pain. I wanted thatpart of the story, but now I felt bad for pushinghim to answer.

Lucky for my curiosity, Diego kept going

after a minute.“I kind of lost it. Stole a gun from a friend

and went hunting.” He chuckled darkly. “Wasn’tas good at it then. But I got the guy that got mybrother before they got me. The rest of his crewhad me cornered in an alley. Then, suddenly, Rileywas there, between me and them. I rememberthinking he was the whitest guy I’d ever seen. Hedidn’t even look at the others when they shot him.Like the bullets were flies. You know what he saidto me? He said, ‘Want a new life, kid?’”

“Hah!” I laughed. “That’s way better thanmine. All I got was, ‘Want a burger, kid?’”

I still remembered how Riley’d looked thatnight, though the image was all blurry because myeyes’d sucked back then. He was the hottest boyI’d ever seen, tall and blond and perfect, everyfeature. I knew his eyes must be just as beautifulbehind the dark sunglasses he never took off. Andhis voice was so gentle, so kind. I figured I knewwhat he would want in exchange for the meal, andI would have given it to him, too. Not because he

was so pretty to look at, but because I hadn’teaten anything but trash for two weeks. It turnedout he wanted something else, though.

Diego laughed at the burger line. “You musthave been pretty hungry.”

“Damn straight.”“So why were you so hungry?”“Because I was stupid and ran away before I

had a driver’s license. I couldn’t get a real job,and I was a bad thief.”

“What were you running from?”I hesitated. The memories were a little more

clear as I focused on them, and I wasn’t sure Iwanted that.

“Oh, c’mon,” he coaxed. “I told you mine.”“Yeah, you did. Okay. I was running from

my dad. He used to knock me around a lot.Probably did the same to my mom before shetook off. I was pretty little then—I didn’t knowmuch. It got worse. I figured if I waited too longI’d end up dead. He told me if I ever ran away I’dstarve. He was right about that—only thing he was

ever right about as far as I’m concerned. I don’tthink about it much.”

Diego nodded in agreement. “Hard toremember that stuff, isn’t it? Everything’s so fuzzyand dark.”

“Like trying to see with mud in your eyes.”“Good way to put it,” he complimented me.

He squinted at me like he was trying to see, andrubbed his eyes.

We laughed together again. Weird.“I don’t think I’ve laughed with anybody

since I met Riley,” he said, echoing my thoughts.“This is nice. You’re nice. Not like the others.You ever try to have a conversation with one ofthem?”

“Nope, I haven’t.”“You’re not missing anything. Which is my

point. Wouldn’t Riley’s standard of living be a littlehigher if he surrounded himself with decentvampires? If we’re supposed to protect her,shouldn’t he be looking for the smart ones?”

“So Riley doesn’t need brains,” I reasoned.

“He needs numbers.”Diego pursed his lips, considering. “Like

chess. He’s not making knights and bishops.”“We’re just pawns,” I realized.We stared at each other again for a long

minute.“I don’t want to think that,” Diego said.“So what do we do?” I asked, using the

plural automatically. Like we were already a team.He thought about my question for a second,

seeming uneasy, and I regretted the “we.” But thenhe said, “What can we do when we don’t knowwhat’s happening?”

So he didn’t mind the team thing, whichmade me feel really good in a way I didn’tremember ever feeling before. “I guess we keepour eyes open, pay attention, try to figure it out.”

He nodded. “We need to think abouteverything Riley’s told us, everything he’s done.”He paused thoughtfully. “You know, I tried tohash some of this out with Riley once, but hecouldn’t have cared less. Told me to keep my

mind on more important things—like thirst. Whichwas all I could think about then, of course. Hesent me out hunting, and I stopped worrying….”

I watched him thinking about Riley, his eyesunfocused as he relived the memory, and Iwondered. Diego was my first friend in this life,but I wasn’t his.

Suddenly his focus snapped back to me. “Sowhat have we learned from Riley?”

I concentrated, running through the last threemonths in my head. “He really doesn’t tell usmuch, you know. Just the vampire basics.”

“We’ll have to listen more carefully.”We sat in silence, pondering this. I mostly

thought about how much I didn’t know. And whyhadn’t I worried about everything I didn’t knowbefore now? It was like talking to Diego hadcleared my head. For the first time in threemonths, blood was not the main thing in there.

The silence lasted for a while. The black holeI’d felt funneling fresh air into the cave wasn’tblack anymore. It was dark gray now and getting

infinitesimally lighter with each second. Diegonoticed me eyeing it nervously.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “Some dim light getsin here on sunny days. It doesn’t hurt.” Heshrugged.

I scooted closer to the hole in the floor,where the water was disappearing as the tide wentout.

“Seriously, Bree. I’ve been down herebefore during the day. I told Riley about this cave—and how it was mostly filled with water, and hesaid it was cool when I needed to get out of themadhouse. Anyway, do I look like I got singed?”

I hesitated, thinking about how different hisrelationship with Riley was than mine. Hiseyebrows rose, waiting for an answer. “No,” Ifinally said. “But…”

“Look,” he said impatiently. He crawledswiftly to the tunnel and stuck his arm in up to theshoulder. “Nothing.”

I nodded once.“Relax! Do you want me to see how high I

can go?” As he spoke, he stuck his head into thehole and started climbing.

“Don’t, Diego.” He was already out of sight.“I’m relaxed, I swear.”

He was laughing—it sounded like he wasalready several yards up the tunnel. I wanted to goafter him, to grab his foot and yank him back, butI was frozen with stress. It would be stupid to riskmy life to save some total stranger. But I hadn’thad anything close to a friend in forever. Already itwould be hard to go back to having no one to talkto, after only one night.

“No estoy quemando,” he called down, histone teasing. “Wait… is that…? Ow!”

“Diego?”I leaped across the cave and stuck my head

into the tunnel. His face was right there, inchesfrom mine.

“Boo!”I flinched back from his proximity—just a

reflex, old habit.“Funny,” I said dryly, moving away as he slid

back into the cave.“You need to unwind, girl. I’ve looked into

this, okay? Indirect sunlight doesn’t hurt.”“So you’re saying that I could just stand

under a nice shady tree and be fine?”He hesitated for a minute, as if debating

whether or not to tell me something, and then saidquietly, “I did once.”

I stared at him, waiting for the grin. Becausethis was a joke.

It didn’t come.“Riley said…,” I started, and then my voice

trailed off.“Yeah, I know what Riley said,” he agreed.

“Maybe Riley doesn’t know as much as he sayshe does.”

“But Shelly and Steve. Doug and Adam.That kid with the bright red hair. All of them.They’re gone because they didn’t get back in time.Riley saw the ashes.”

Diego’s brows pulled together unhappily.“Everyone knows that old-timey vampires

had to stay in coffins during the day,” I went on.“To keep out of the sun. That’s commonknowledge, Diego.”

“You’re right. All the stories do say that.”“And what would Riley gain by locking us up

in a lightproof basement—one big group coffin—all day, anyway? We just demolish the place, andhe has to deal with all the fighting, and it’s constantturmoil. You can’t tell me he enjoys it.”

Something I’d said surprised him. He satwith his mouth open for a second, then closed it.

“What?”“Common knowledge,” he repeated. “What

do vampires do in coffins all day?”“Er—oh yeah, they’re supposed to sleep,

right? But I guess they’re probably just lying therebored, ’cause we don’t… Okay, so that part’swrong.”

“Yeah. In the stories they’re not just asleep,though. They’re totally unconscious. They can’twake up. A human can walk right up and stakethem, no problem. And that’s another thing—

stakes. You really think someone could shove apiece of wood through you?”

I shrugged. “I haven’t really thought about it.I mean, not a normal piece of wood, obviously.Maybe sharpened wood has some kind of… Idon’t know. Magical properties or something.”

Diego snorted. “Please.”“Well, I don’t know. I wouldn’t just hold still

while some human ran at me with a filed broomhandle, anyway.”

Diego—still with a sort of disgusted look onhis face, as if magic were really such a reach whenyou’re a vampire—rolled to his knees and startedclawing into the limestone above his head. Tinystone shards filled his hair, but he ignored them.

“What are you doing?”“Experimenting.”He dug with both hands until he could stand

upright, and then kept going.“Diego, you get to the surface, you explode.

Stop it.”“I’m not trying to—ah, here we go.”

There was a loud crack, and then anothercrack, but no light. He ducked back down towhere I could see his face, with a piece of treeroot in his hand, white, dead, and dry under theclumps of dirt. The edge where he’d broken it wasa sharp, uneven point. He tossed it to me.

“Stake me.”I tossed it back. “Whatever.”“Seriously. You know it can’t hurt me.” He

lobbed the wood to me; instead of catching it, Ibatted it back.

He snagged it out of the air and groaned.“You are so… superstitious!”

“I am a vampire. If that doesn’t prove thatsuperstitious people are right, I don’t know whatdoes.”

“Fine, I’ll do it.”He held the branch away from himself

dramatically, arm extended, like it was a swordand he was about to impale himself.

“C’mon,” I said uneasily. “This is silly.”“That’s my point. Here goes nothing.”

He crushed the wood into his chest, rightwhere his heart used to beat, with enough force topunch through a granite slab. I was totally frozenwith panic until he laughed.

“You should see your face, Bree.”He sifted the splinters of broken wood

through his fingers; the shattered root fell to thefloor in mangled pieces. Diego brushed at his shirt,though it was too trashed from all the swimmingand digging for the attempt to do any good. We’dboth have to steal more clothes the next time wegot a chance.

“Maybe it’s different when a human does it.”“Because you felt so magical when you were

human?”“I don’t know, Diego,” I said, exasperated.

“I didn’t make up all those stories.”He nodded, suddenly more serious. “What if

the stories are exactly that? Made up.”I sighed. “What difference does it make?”“Not sure. But if we’re going to be smart

about why we’re here—why Riley brought us to

her, why she’s making more of us—then we haveto understand as much as we possibly can.” Hefrowned, every trace of laughter totally gone fromhis face now.

I just stared back at him. I didn’t have anyanswers.

His face softened just a little. “This helps alot, you know. Talking about it. Helps me focus.”

“Me, too,” I said. “I don’t know why I neverthought about any of this before. It seems soobvious. But working on it together… I don’tknow. I can stay on track better.”

“Exactly.” Diego smiled at me. “I’m reallyglad you came out tonight.”

“Don’t get all gooey on me now.”“What? You don’t want to be”—he widened

his eyes and his voice went up an octave—“BFFs?” He laughed at the goofy expression.

I rolled my eyes, not totally sure if he wasmaking fun of the expression or of me.

“C’mon, Bree. Be my bestest bud forever.Please?” Still teasing, but his wide smile was

natural and… hopeful. He held out his hand.This time I went for a real high five, not

realizing until he caught my hand and held it thathe’d intended anything else.

It was shockingly weird to touch anotherperson after a whole life—because the last threemonths were my whole life—of avoiding any kindof contact. Like touching a sparking downedpower line, only to find out that it felt nice.

The smile on my face felt a little lopsided.“Count me in.”

“Excellent. Our own private club.”“Very exclusive,” I agreed.He still had my hand. Not shaking it, but not

exactly holding it, either. “We need a secrethandshake.”

“You can be in charge of that one.”“So the super-secret best friends club is

called to order, all present, secret handshake to bedevised at a later date,” he said. “First order ofbusiness: Riley. Clueless? Misinformed? Or lying?”

His eyes were on mine as he spoke, wide

and sincere. There was no change as he saidRiley’s name. In that instant, I was sure there wasnothing to the stories about Diego and Riley.Diego had just been around more than the others,nothing more. I could trust him.

“Add this to the list,” I said. “Agenda. As in,what is his?”

“Bull’s-eye. That’s exactly what we’ve got tofind out. But first, another experiment.”

“That word makes me nervous.”“Trust is an essential part of the whole secret

club gig.”He stood up into the extra ceiling space he’d

just carved out and started digging again. In asecond, his feet were dangling while he heldhimself up with one hand and excavated with theother.

“You better be digging for garlic,” I warnedhim, and backed up toward the tunnel that led tothe sea.

“The stories aren’t real, Bree,” he called tome. He pulled himself higher into the hole he was

making, and the dirt continued to rain down. Hewas going to fill in his hidey-hole at this rate. Orflood it with light, which would make it even moreuseless.

I slid most of the way into the escapechannel, just my fingertips and eyes above theedge. The water only came up to my hips. Itwould take me just the smallest fraction of asecond to disappear into the darkness below. Icould spend a day not breathing.

I’d never been a fan of fire. This might havebeen because of some buried childhood memory,or maybe it was more recent. Becoming a vampirewas enough fire to last me.

Diego had to be close to the surface. Onceagain, I struggled with the idea of losing my newand only friend.

“Please stop, Diego,” I whispered, knowinghe would probably laugh, knowing he wouldn’tlisten.

“Trust, Bree.”I waited, unmoving.

“Almost…,” he muttered. “Okay.”I tensed for the light, or the spark, or the

explosion, but Diego dropped back down while itwas still dark. In his hand he had a longer root, athick snaky thing that was almost as tall as me. Hegave me an I-told-you-so kind of look.

“I’m not a completely reckless person,” hesaid. He gestured to the root with his free hand.“See—precautions.”

With that, he stabbed the root upward intohis new hole. There was a final avalanche ofpebbles and sand as Diego dropped back onto hisknees, getting out of the way. And then a beam ofbrilliant light—a ray about the thickness of one ofDiego’s arms—pierced the darkness of the cave.The light made a pillar from the ceiling to the floor,shimmering as the drifting dirt sifted through it. Iwas icy-still, gripping the ledge, ready to drop.

Diego didn’t jerk away or cry out in pain.There was no smell of smoke. The cave was ahundred times lighter than it had been, but it didn’tseem to affect him. So maybe his story about

shade trees was true. I watched him carefully ashe knelt beside the pillar of sunlight, motionless,staring. He seemed fine, but there was a slightchange to his skin. A kind of movement, maybefrom the settling dust, that reflected the gleam. Itlooked almost like he was glowing a little.

Maybe it wasn’t the dust, maybe it was theburning. Maybe it didn’t hurt, and he’d realize ittoo late….

Seconds passed as we stared at the daylight,motionless.

Then, in a move that seemed both absolutelyexpected and also completely unthinkable, he heldout his hand, palm up, and stretched his armtoward the beam.

I moved faster than I could think, which waspretty dang fast. Faster than I’d ever movedbefore.

I tackled Diego into the back wall of the dirt-filled little cave before he could reach that one lastinch to put his skin in the light.

The room was filled with a sudden blaze, and

I felt the warmth on my leg in the same instant thatI realized there wasn’t enough room for me to pinDiego to the wall without some part of myselftouching the sunlight.

“Bree!” he gasped.I twisted away from him automatically, rolling

myself tight against the wall. It took less than asecond, and the whole time I was waiting for thepain to get me. For the flames to hit and thenspread like the night I’d met her, only faster. Thedazzling flash of light was gone. It was just thepillar of sun again.

I looked at Diego’s face—his eyes werewide, his mouth hanging open. He was totally still,a sure sign of alarm. I wanted to look down at myleg, but I was afraid to see what was left. Thiswasn’t like Jen ripping my arm off, though that hadhurt more. I wasn’t going to be able to fix this.

Still no pain yet.“Bree, did you see that?”I shook my head once quickly. “How bad is

it?”

“Bad?”“My leg,” I said through my teeth. “Just tell

me what’s left.”“Your leg looks fine to me.”I glanced down quickly, and sure enough,

there was my foot and my calf, just like before. Iwiggled my toes. Fine.

“Does it hurt?” he asked.I pulled myself off the ground, onto my

knees. “Not yet.”“Did you see what happened? The light?”I shook my head.“Watch this,” he said, kneeling in front of the

beam of sunshine again. “And don’t shove me outof the way this time. You already proved I’mright.” He put his hand out. It was almost as hardto watch this time, even if my leg felt normal.

The second his fingers entered the beam, thecave was filled with a million brilliant rainbowreflections. It was bright as noon in a glass room—light everywhere. I flinched and then shuddered.There was sunlight all over me.

“Unreal,” Diego whispered. He put the restof his hand into the beam, and the cave somehowgot even brighter. He rolled his hand over to lookat the back, then turned it palm up again. Thereflections danced like he was spinning a prism.

There was no smell of burning, and he clearlywasn’t in pain. I looked closely at his hand, and itseemed like there were a zillion tiny mirrors in thesurface, too small to distinguish separately, allshining back the light with double the intensity of aregular mirror.

“Come here, Bree—you have to try this.”I couldn’t think of a reason to refuse, and I

was curious, but I was also still reluctant as I slidto his side.

“No burn?”“None. Light doesn’t burn us, it just…

reflects off of us. I guess that’s kind of anunderstatement.”

Slow as a human, I reluctantly stretched myfingers into the light. Immediately, reflectionsblazed away from my skin, making the room so

bright that the day outside would look dark incomparison. They weren’t exactly reflections,though, because the light was bent and colored,more like crystal. I stuck my whole hand in, andthe room got brighter.

“Do you think Riley knows?” I whispered.“Maybe. Maybe not.”“Why wouldn’t he tell us if he did? What

would be the point? So we’re walking discoballs.” I shrugged.

Diego laughed. “I can see where the storiescome from. Imagine if you saw this when youwere human. Wouldn’t you think that the guy overthere just burst into flames?”

“If he didn’t hang around to chat. Maybe.”“This is incredible,” Diego said. With one

finger he traced a line across my glowing palm.Then he jumped to his feet right under the

sunbeam, and the room went crazy with light.“C’mon, let’s get out of here.” He reached

up and pulled himself toward the hole he’d cut tothe surface.

You’d think I would have been over it, but Iwas still nervous to follow. Not wanting to seemlike a total chicken, I stayed close on his heels, butI was cringing inside the whole way. Riley hadreally made his point about burning in the sun; inmy mind it was linked to that horrific time ofburning as I became a vampire, and I couldn’tescape the instinctive panic that filled me everytime I thought of it.

Then Diego was out of the hole, and I wasnext to him half a second later. We stood on asmall patch of wild grass, only a few feet from thetrees that covered the island. Behind us, it was justa couple of yards to a low bluff, and then thewater. Everything around us blazed in the colorand light shining off of us.

“Wow,” I muttered.Diego grinned at me, his face beautiful with

light, and suddenly, with a deep lurch in mystomach, I realized that the whole BFF thing wasway off the mark. For me, anyway. It was just thatfast.

His grin softened a little bit into just the hintof a smile. His eyes were wide like mine. All aweand lights. He touched my face, the way he’dtouched my hand, as if he was trying to understandthe shine.

“So pretty,” he said. He left his hand againstmy cheek.

I’m not sure how long we stood there,smiling like total idiots, blazing away like glasstorches. The inlet was empty of boats, which wasprobably good. No way even a mud-eyed humanwould have missed us. Not that they could havedone anything to us, but I wasn’t thirsty, and allthe screaming would have ruined the mood.

Eventually a thick cloud drifted in front of thesun. Suddenly we were just us again, though stillslightly luminous. Not enough that anyone witheyes duller than a vampire’s would notice.

As soon as the shine was gone, my thoughtscleared up and I could think about what wascoming next. But even though Diego looked likehis normal self again—not made of blazing light,

anyway—I knew he would never look the same tome. That tingly sensation in the pit of my stomachwas still there. I had the feeling it might be therepermanently.

“Do we tell Riley? Do we think he doesn’tknow?” I asked.

Diego sighed and dropped his hand. “I don’tknow. Let’s think about this while we track them.”

“We’re going to have to be careful, trackingthem in the day. We’re kind of noticeable in thesunlight, you know.”

He grinned. “Let’s be ninjas.”I nodded. “Super-secret ninja club sounds

way cooler than the whole BFF thing.”“Definitely better.”It didn’t take us more than a few seconds to

find the point from which the whole gang had leftthe island. That was the easy part. Finding wherethey’d touched ground on the mainland was awhole other problem. We briefly discussedsplitting up, then vetoed that idea unanimously.Our logic was really sound—after all, if one of us

found something, how would we tell the other?—but mostly I just didn’t want to leave him, and Icould see he felt the same. Both of us had beenwithout any kind of good companionship ourwhole lives, and it was just too sweet to waste aminute of it.

There were so many options as to wherethey could have gone. To the mainland of thepeninsula, or to another island, or back to theoutskirts of Seattle, or north to Canada.Whenever we pulled down or burned down oneof our houses, Riley was always prepared—healways seemed to know exactly where to go next.He must have planned ahead for that stuff, but hedidn’t let any of us in on the plan.

They could have been anywhere.Ducking in and out of the water to avoid

boats and people really slowed us down. Wespent all day with no luck, but neither of usminded. We were having the most fun we’d everhad.

It was such a strange day. Instead of sitting

miserably in the darkness trying to tune out themayhem and swallow my disgust at my hidingplace, I was playing ninja with my new best friend,or maybe something more. We laughed a lot whilewe moved through the patches of shade, throwingrocks at each other like they were Chinese stars.

Then the sun set, and suddenly I wasstressed. Would Riley look for us? Would heassume we were fried? Did he know better?

We started moving faster. A lot faster. We’dalready circled all the nearby islands, so now weconcentrated on the mainland. About an hour aftersundown, I caught a familiar scent, and withinseconds we were on their trail. Once we found thepath of the smell, it was as easy as following aherd of elephants through fresh snow.

We talked about what to do, more seriousnow as we ran.

“I don’t think we should tell Riley,” I said.“Let’s say we spent all day in your cave before wewent looking for them.” As I spoke, my paranoiastarted to grow. “Better yet, let’s tell them your

cave was filled with water. We couldn’t eventalk.”

“You think Riley’s a bad dude, don’t you?”he asked quietly after a minute. As he spoke, hetook my hand.

“I don’t know. But I’d rather act like he was,just in case.” I hesitated, then said, “You don’twant to think he’s bad.”

“No,” Diego admitted. “He’s kind of myfriend. I mean, not like you’re my friend.” Hesqueezed my fingers. “But more than anyone else.I don’t want to think…” Diego didn’t finish hissentence.

I squeezed his fingers back. “Maybe he’stotally decent. Our being careful doesn’t changewho he is.”

“True. Okay, the underwater cave story it is.At least at first… I could talk to him about the sunlater. I’d rather do it during the day, anyway,when I can prove what I’m claiming right away.And just in case he already knows, but there’ssome good reason why he told us something else,

I should tell him when we’re alone. Grab him atdawn, when he’s coming back from wherever it ishe goes….”

I noticed a ton of I’s rather than we’s goingon in Diego’s little speech, and it bothered me. Butat the same time, I didn’t want much to do witheducating Riley. I didn’t have the same faith in himDiego did.

“Ninja attack at dawn!” I said to make himlaugh. It worked. We started joking again as wetracked our herd of vampires, but I could tell hewas thinking serious stuff under the teasing, justlike I was.

And I only got more anxious as we ran.Because we were running fast, and there was noway we had the wrong trail, but it was taking toolong. We were really getting away from the coast,up and over the closest mountains, off into newterritory. This wasn’t the normal pattern.

Every house we’d borrowed, whether it wasup a mountain or on an island or hidden on a bigfarm, had a few things in common. The dead

owners, the remote locale, and one other thing.They all were sort of focused on Seattle. Orientedaround the big city like orbiting moons. Seattlewas always the hub, always the target.

We were out of orbit now, and it felt wrong.Maybe it meant nothing, maybe it was just that somany things were changing today. All the truths I’daccepted had been turned upside down and Iwasn’t in the mood for any other upheavals. Whycouldn’t Riley have just picked someplacenormal?

“Funny they’re this far out,” Diegomurmured, and I could hear the edge in his voice.

“Or scary,” I muttered.He squeezed my hand. “It’s cool. The ninja

club can handle anything.”“You got a secret handshake yet?”“Working on it,” he promised.Something started to bug me. It was like I

could feel this strange blind spot—I knew therewas something I wasn’t seeing, but I couldn’t putmy finger on it. Something obvious…

And then, about sixty miles farther west thanour usual perimeter, we found the house. It wasimpossible to mistake the noise. The boom boomboom of the bass, the video-game soundtrack, thesnarling. Totally our crowd.

I pulled my hand free, and Diego looked atme.

“Hey, I don’t even know you,” I said in ajoking tone. “I haven’t had one conversation withyou, what with all that water we sat in all day. Youcould be a ninja or a vampire for all I know.”

He grinned. “Same goes for you, stranger.”Then low and fast, “Just do the same things youdid yesterday. Tomorrow night we’ll get outtogether. Maybe do some reconnaissance, figureout more of what’s going on.”

“Sounds like a plan. Mum’s the word.”He ducked close and kissed me—just a

peck, but right on the lips. The shock of it zingedthrough my whole body. Then he said, “Let’s dothis,” and headed down the side of the mountaintoward the source of the raucous noise without

looking back. Already playing the part.A little stunned, I followed from a few yards

behind, remembering to put the distance betweenus that I would put between myself and anyoneelse.

The house was a big, log cabin–style affair,tucked into a hollow in the pines with no sign ofany neighbors for miles around. All the windowswere black, as if the place were empty, but thewhole frame was trembling from the heavy bass inthe basement.

Diego went in first, and I tried to movebehind him like he was Kevin or Raoul. Hesitant,protecting my space. He found the stairs andcharged down with a confident tread.

“Trying to lose me, losers?” he asked.“Oh, hey, Diego’s alive,” I heard Kevin

answer with a distinct lack of enthusiasm.“No thanks to you,” Diego said as I slipped

into the dark basement. The only light came fromthe various TV screens, but it was way more thanany of us needed. I hurried back to where Fred

had a whole couch to himself, glad that it was rightfor me to look anxious because there was no wayto hide it. I swallowed hard as the revulsion hit,and curled up in my usual spot on the floor behindthe couch. Once I was down, Fred’s repellentpower seemed to ease up. Or maybe I was justgetting used to it.

The basement was more than half emptysince it was the middle of the night. All the kids inhere had eyes the same as mine—bright, recentlyfed red.

“Took me a while to clean up your stupidmess,” Diego told Kevin. “It was almost dawn bythe time I got to what was left of the house. Hadto sit in a cave filled with water all day.”

“Go tattle to Riley. Whatever.”“I see the little girl made it, too,” said a new

voice, and I shuddered because it was Raoul. I felta little bit of relief that he didn’t know my name,but mostly I just felt horrified that he’d noticed meat all.

“Yeah, she followed me.” I couldn’t see

Diego, but I knew he was shrugging.“Aren’t you the savior of the hour?” Raoul

said snidely.“We don’t get extra points for being

morons.”I wished Diego wouldn’t taunt Raoul. I

hoped Riley would come back soon. Only Rileycould curb Raoul even the littlest bit.

But Riley was probably out hunting dregskids to bring to her. Or doing whatever else he didwhile he was away.

“Interesting attitude you got, Diego. Youthink that Riley likes you so much he’s gonna careif I kill you. I think you’re wrong. But either way,for tonight, he already thinks you’re dead.”

I could hear the others moving. Someprobably to back Raoul up, others just getting outof the way. I hesitated in my hiding spot, knowingI wasn’t going to let Diego fight them alone, butworried about blowing our cover if it didn’t cometo that. I hoped Diego had survived this longbecause he had some crazy combat skills. I wasn’t

going to have much to offer in that department.There were three members of Raoul’s gang here,and some others that might help out just to get onhis good side. Would Riley get home before theyhad time to burn us?

Diego’s voice was calm when he answered.“You’re really that afraid to take me on alone?Typical.”

Raoul snorted. “Does that ever work? Imean, besides in movies. Why should I take youon alone? I don’t care about beating you. I justwant to end you.”

I rolled into a crouch, tensed to spring.Raoul kept talking. He liked the sound of his

own voice a lot.“But it’s not gonna take all of us to deal with

you. These two will take care of the otherevidence of your unfortunate survival. Littlewhat’s-her-name.”

My body felt icy, frozen solid. I tried toshake it off so I could fight my best. Not that itwould have made a difference.

And then I felt something else, somethingtotally unexpected—a wave of revulsion sooverpowering that I couldn’t hold my crouch. Icrumpled to the floor, gasping with horror.

I was not the only one to react. I hearddisgusted snarls and retching sounds from everycorner of the basement. A few people retreated tothe edges of the room, where I could see them.They strained against the wall, stretching theirnecks away as if they could escape the horriblefeeling. At least one of these was a member ofRaoul’s gang.

I heard Raoul’s distinctive growl, and thenheard it fade as he took off up the stairs. Hewasn’t the only one to make a break for it. Abouthalf of the vampires in the basement cleared out.

I didn’t have that choice. I could barelymove. And then I realized this had to be because Iwas so close to Freaky Fred. He was responsiblefor what was happening. And as horrible as I felt,I was still able to realize that he’d probably justsaved my life.

Why?The sensation of disgust faded slowly. As

soon as I could, I crept to the edge of the couchand took in the aftermath. All of Raoul’s gang wasgone, but Diego was still there, on the far end ofthe big room by the TVs. The vampires whoremained were slowly relaxing, though everybodylooked a little shaken. Most of them were shootingcautious glances in Fred’s direction. I peeked atthe back of his head, too, though I couldn’t seeanything. I looked away quickly. Looking at Fredbrought back some of the nausea.

“Keep it down.”The deep voice came from Fred. I’d never

heard him speak before. Everyone stared and thenlooked away immediately as the revulsionreturned.

So Fred just wanted his peace and quiet.Well, whatever. I was alive because of it. Mostlikely Raoul would get distracted by some otherirritant before dawn and take out his anger onsomebody close by. And Riley always came back

at the end of the night. He would hear that Diegohad been in his cave rather than outside anddestroyed by the sun, and Raoul wouldn’t have anexcuse to attack him or me.

At least, that was the best-case scenario. Inthe meantime, maybe Diego and I could come upwith some plan to steer clear of Raoul.

Again, I had a fleeting sense that I wasmissing an obvious solution. Before I could figureit out, my thoughts were interrupted.

“Sorry.”The deep, almost silent mutter could only

have come from Fred. It looked like I was theonly one close enough to really hear. Was hetalking to me?

I looked at him again and felt nothing. Icouldn’t see his face—he had his back to me still.He had thick, wavy blond hair. I’d never noticedthat before, not with all the days I’d sat hiding inhis shadow. Riley wasn’t kidding when he’d saidthat Fred was special. Gross, but really special.Did Riley have any idea that Fred was so… so

powerful? He was able to overwhelm a wholeroom of us in a second.

Though I couldn’t see his expression, I hadthe sense that Fred was waiting for an answer.

“Um, don’t apologize,” I breathed almostsilently. “Thank you.”

Fred shrugged.And then I found I couldn’t look at him

anymore.The hours passed slower than usual as I

waited for Raoul to come back. From time to timeI tried to look at Fred again—to see past theprotection he’d created for himself—but I alwaysfound myself repelled. If I tried too hard, I endedup gagging.

Thinking about Fred was a good distractionfrom thinking about Diego. I tried to pretend Ididn’t care where he was in the room. I didn’tlook at him but focused on the sound of hisbreathing—his distinct rhythm—to keep tabs. Hesat on the other side of the room from me, listeningto his CDs on a laptop. Or maybe pretending to

listen, the way I was pretending to read the booksfrom the damp backpack on my shoulders. Iflipped pages at my usual rate, but I didn’t takeanything in. I was waiting for Raoul.

Luckily, Riley came first. Raoul and hiscohorts were right behind him, but not as loud andobnoxious as usual. Maybe Fred had taught thema little respect.

Probably not, though. More likely Fred hadjust angered them. I really hoped Fred never lethis guard slip.

Riley went to Diego right away; I listenedwith my back to them, eyes on my book. In myperipheral vision, I saw some of Raoul’s idiotswandering, looking for their favorite games orwhatever they’d been doing before Fred haddriven them out. Kevin was one of them, but heseemed to be looking for something more specificthan entertainment. Several times his eyes tried tofocus on where I was sitting, but Fred’s aura kepthim at bay. He gave up after a few minutes,looking a little sick.

“I heard you made it back,” Riley said,sounding genuinely pleased. “I can always counton you, Diego.”

“No problem,” Diego said in a relaxed voice.“Unless you count holding my breath all day as anegative.”

Riley laughed. “Don’t cut it so close nexttime. Set a better example for the babies.”

Diego just laughed with him. From the cornerof my eye, it seemed like Kevin relaxed some.Was he really that worried about Diego gettinghim in trouble? Maybe Riley listened to Diegomore than I realized. I wondered whether that waswhy Raoul had gotten crazy before.

Was it a good thing if Diego was that in withRiley after all? Maybe Riley was okay. Thatrelationship didn’t compromise what we had, didit?

Time didn’t pass any faster after the sun wasup. It was crowded and unstable in the basement,like every day. If vampires could get hoarse, Rileywould have lost his voice entirely from the yelling.

A couple of kids temporarily lost limbs, butnobody got torched. The music warred with thegame tracks, and I was glad I didn’t getheadaches. I tried reading my books, but I endedup just flipping through one after the other, notcaring enough to make my eyes focus on thewords. I left them in a neat stack by the end of thecouch for Fred. I always left my books for him,though I never could tell whether he read them.Couldn’t look at him closely enough to see what,exactly, he did with his time.

At least Raoul never looked my way. Neitherdid Kevin or any of the others. My hiding placewas as effective as ever. I couldn’t see if Diegowas smart enough to ignore me, because I wasignoring him so thoroughly. No one could suspectthat we were a team, except maybe Fred. HadFred been paying attention as I prepared to fightalongside Diego? Even if he had, I didn’t worrytoo much about it. If Fred felt any particular ill willtoward me, he could have let me die last night.Would have been easy.

It got louder as the sun started to go down.We couldn’t see the light fading here underground,with all of the windows upstairs covered just incase. But waiting through so many long days gaveyou a good sense for when one was almost over.Kids started getting antsy, bugging Riley aboutwhether they could go out.

“Kristie, you were out last night,” Riley said,and you could hear the patience wearing thin in hisvoice. “Heather, Jim, Logan—go ahead. Warren,your eyes are dark, go along with them. Hey,Sara, I’m not blind—get back here.”

The kids he shut down sulked in the corners,some of them waiting for Riley to leave so theycould sneak out in spite of his rules.

“Um, Fred, must be about your turn,” Rileysaid, not looking in our direction. I heard Fred sighas he got to his feet. Everyone cringed as hemoved through the center of the room, even Riley.But unlike the others, Riley smiled a little tohimself. He liked his vampire with skills.

I felt naked with Fred gone. Anyone could

focus on me now. I held perfectly still, head down,doing everything in my power not to call attentionto myself.

Lucky for me, Riley was in a hurry tonight.He barely paused to glare at the people who wereclearly edging for the door, let alone threatenthem, as he headed out himself. Normally he’dgive us some variant on the usual speech aboutkeeping a low profile, but not tonight. He seemedpreoccupied, anxious. I’d have bet he was goingto see her. That made me less excited aboutcatching up with him at dawn.

I waited for Kristie and three of her usualcompanions to head out, and I slipped out in theirwake, trying to look like part of the entouragewithout irritating them. I didn’t look at Raoul, Ididn’t look at Diego. I concentrated on seeminginconsequential—no one to notice. Just somerandom vampire chick.

Once we were out of the house, I split offfrom Kristie immediately and beat it into thewoods. I hoped only Diego would care enough to

follow my scent. Halfway up the side of thenearest mountain, I made my perch in the topbranches of a big spruce that cleared its neighborsby several meters. I had a pretty good view ofanyone who might try to track me.

Turns out I was being overcautious. MaybeI’d been too cautious all day. Diego was the onlyone to come looking. I saw him from a distanceand backtracked to meet him.

“Long day,” he said, giving me a hug. “Yourplan is hard.”

I hugged him back, marveling at howcomfortable this was. “Maybe I’m just beingparanoid.”

“Sorry about Raoul. That was close.”I nodded. “Good thing Fred is so disgusting.”“I wonder if Riley knows how potent that kid

is.”“Doubt it. I’ve never seen him do that

before, and I spend a lot of time around him.”“Well, that’s Freaky Fred’s business. We

have our own secret to tell Riley.”

I shuddered. “Still not sure that’s a goodidea.”

“We won’t know until we see how Rileyreacts.”

“I don’t really like not knowing, as a generalrule.”

Diego’s eyes narrowed speculatively. “Howdo you feel about adventure?”

“Depends.”“Well, I was thinking about club priorities.

You know, about finding out as much as we can.”“And…?”“I think we should follow Riley. Find out

what he’s doing.”I stared. “But he’ll know we tracked him.

He’ll catch our scents.”“I know. This is how I figure it. I follow his

scent. You keep clear by a few hundred yards andfollow my sound. Then Riley only knows Ifollowed him, and I can tell him it’s because I hadsomething important to share. That’s when I dothe big reveal with the disco ball effect. And I’ll

see what he says.” His eyes narrowed as heexamined me. “But you… you just play it close tothe chest for now, okay? I’ll tell you if he’s coolabout it.”

“What if he comes back early from whereverhe’s going? Don’t you want it to be close to dawnso you can glitter?”

“Yes… that’s definitely a possible problem.And it might affect the way the conversation goes.But I think we should risk it. He seemed like hewas in a hurry tonight, didn’t he? Like maybe heneeds all night for whatever he’s doing?”

“Maybe. Or maybe he was just in a big hurryto see her. You know, we might not want tosurprise him if she’s nearby.” We both winced.

“True. Still…” He frowned. “Doesn’t it feellike whatever’s coming is getting close? Like wemight not have forever to figure this out?”

I nodded unhappily. “Yeah, it does.”“So let’s take our chances. Riley trusts me,

and I have a good reason for wanting to talk tohim.”

I thought about this strategy. Though I’d onlyknown him for a day, really, I was still aware thatthis level of paranoia was out of character forDiego.

“This elaborate plan of yours…,” I said.“What about it?” he asked.“It sounds kind of like a solo plan. Not so

much a club adventure. At least, not when itcomes to the dangerous part.”

He made a face that told me I’d caught him.“This is my idea. I’m the one who…” He

hesitated, having trouble with the next word. “…trusts Riley. I’m the only one who’s going to riskgetting on his bad side if I’m wrong.”

Chicken as I was, this didn’t fly with me.“Clubs don’t work that way.”

He nodded, his expression unclear. “Okay,we’ll think about it as we go.”

I didn’t think he really meant it.“Stay in the trees, track me from above,

’kay?” he said.“Okay.”

He headed back toward the log cabin,moving fast. I followed through the branches, mostof them so close-packed that I only rarely had toreally leap from one tree to another. I kept mymovements as small as possible, hoping that thebending of the boughs under my weight would justlook like wind. It was a breezy night, which wouldhelp. It was cold for summer, not that thetemperature bothered me.

Diego caught Riley’s scent outside the housewithout trouble and then loped after it quicklywhile I trailed several yards back and about ahundred yards north, higher on the slope than hewas. When the trees were really thick, he’d rustlea trunk now and again so I wouldn’t lose him.

We kept on, with him running and meimpersonating a flying squirrel, for only fifteenminutes or so before I saw Diego slow down. Wemust have been getting close. I moved higher inthe branches, looking for a tree with a good view.I scaled one that towered over its neighbors, andscanned the scene.

Less than half a mile away was a large gap inthe trees, an open field that covered several acres.Near the center of the space, closer to the treeson its east side, was what looked like an oversizedgingerbread house. Painted bright pink, green, andwhite, it was elaborate to the point ofridiculousness, with fancy trim and finials on everyconceivable edge. It was the kind of thing I wouldhave laughed at in a more relaxed situation.

Riley was nowhere in sight, but Diego hadcome to a complete stop below, so I assumed thiswas the end point of our pursuit. Maybe this wasthe replacement house Riley was preparing forwhen the big log cabin crumbled. Except that itwas smaller than any of the other houses we’dstayed in, and it didn’t look like it had a basement.And it was even farther away from Seattle than thelast one.

Diego looked up at me, and I signaled forhim to join me. He nodded and retraced his trail alittle ways. Then he made an enormous leap—Iwondered if I could have jumped that high, even

as young and strong as I was—and caught abranch about halfway up the closest tree. Unlesssomeone was being extraordinarily vigilant, no oneever would have noticed that Diego’d made a sidetrip off his path. Even still, he jumped around in thetreetops, making sure his trail did not lead directlyto mine.

When he finally decided it was safe to joinme, he took my hand right away. Silently, Inodded toward the gingerbread house. Onecorner of his mouth twitched.

Simultaneously we started edging toward theeast side of the house, keeping high up in the trees.We got as close as we dared—leaving a few treesas cover between the house and ourselves—andthen sat silently, listening.

The breeze turned helpfully gentle, and wecould hear something. Strange little brushing,ticking sounds. At first I didn’t recognize what Iwas hearing, but then Diego twitched another littlesmile, puckered his lips, and silently kissed the airin my direction.

Kissing didn’t sound the same with vampiresas it did with humans. No soft, fleshy, liquid-filledcells to squish against each other. Just stone lips,no give. I had heard one kiss between vampiresbefore—Diego’s touch to my lips last night—but Inever would have made the connection. It was sofar from what I’d expected to find here.

This knowledge spun everything around inmy head. I had assumed Riley was going to seeher, whether to receive instructions or bring hernew recruits, I didn’t know. But I had neverimagined stumbling across some kind of… lovenest. How could Riley kiss her? I shuddered andglanced at Diego. He looked faintly horrified, too,but he shrugged.

I thought back to that last night of humanity,flinching as I remembered the vivid burning. I triedto recall the moments just before that, through allthe fuzziness…. First there was the creeping fearthat had built as Riley pulled up to the dark house,the feeling of safety I’d had in the bright burgerjoint dissolving entirely. I was holding back, edging

away, and then he’d grabbed my arm with a steelgrip and yanked me out of the car like I was adoll, weightless. Terror and disbelief as he’dleaped the ten yards to the door. Terror and thenpain leaving no room for disbelief as he broke myarm dragging me through the door into the blackhouse. And then the voice.

As I focused on the memory, I could hear itagain. High and singsong, like a little girl’s, butgrouchy. A child throwing a tantrum.

I remembered what she’d said. “Why didyou even bring this one? It’s too small.” Somethingclose to that, I thought. The words might not beexactly right, but that was the meaning.

I was sure Riley had sounded eager to pleasewhen he answered, afraid of disappointing. “Butshe’s another body. Another distraction, at least.”

I think I’d whimpered then, and he’d shakenme painfully, but he hadn’t spoken to me again. Itwas like I was a dog, not a person.

“This whole night has been a waste,” thechild’s voice had complained. “I’ve killed them all.

Ugh!”I remembered that the house had shuddered

then, as if a car had collided with the frame. Irealized now that she’d probably just kickedsomething in frustration.

“Fine. I guess even a little one is better thannothing, if this is the best you can do. And I’m sofull now I should be able to stop.”

Riley’s hard fingers had disappeared thenand left me alone with the voice. I’d been toopanicked at that point to make a sound. I’d justclosed my eyes, though I was already totally blindin the darkness. I didn’t scream until something cutinto my neck, burning like a blade coated in acid.

I cringed back from the memory, trying topush the next part from my mind. Instead Iconcentrated on that short conversation. Shehadn’t sounded like she was talking to her lover oreven her friend. More like she was talking to anemployee. One she didn’t like much and might firesoon.

But the strange vampire kissing sounds

continued. Someone sighed in contentment.I frowned at Diego. This exchange didn’t tell

us much. How long did we need to stay?He just held his head on the side, listening

carefully.And after a few more minutes of patience,

the low, romantic sounds were suddenlyinterrupted.

“How many?”The voice was muted by distance, but still

distinct. And recognizable. High, almost a trill.Like a spoiled young girl.

“Twenty-two,” Riley answered, soundingproud. Diego and I exchanged a sharp glance.There were twenty-two of us, at last count,anyway. They must be talking about us.

“I thought I’d lost two more to the sun, butone of my older kids is… obedient,” Rileycontinued. There was almost an affectionate soundto his voice when he spoke of Diego as one of hiskids. “He has an underground place—he hidhimself with the younger one.”

“Are you sure?”There was a long pause, this time with no

sounds of romance. Even from this distance, Ithought I could feel some tension.

“Yeah. He’s a good kid, I’m sure.”Another strained pause. I didn’t understand

her question. What did she mean, are you sure?Did she think he’d heard the story from someoneelse rather than seeing Diego for himself?

“Twenty-two is good,” she mused, and thetension seemed to dissolve. “How is their behaviordeveloping? Some of them are almost a year old.Do they still follow the normal patterns?”

“Yes,” Riley said. “Everything you told me todo worked flawlessly. They don’t think—they justdo what they’ve always done. I can alwaysdistract them with thirst. It keeps them undercontrol.”

I frowned at Diego. Riley didn’t want us tothink. Why?

“You’ve done so well,” our creator cooed,and there was another kiss. “Twenty-two!”

“Is it time?” Riley asked eagerly.Her answer came back fast, like a slap. “No!

I haven’t decided when.”“I don’t understand.”“You don’t need to. It’s enough for you to

know that our enemies have great powers. Wecannot be too careful.” Her voice softened, turnedsugary again. “But all twenty-two still alive. Evenwith what they are capable of… what good will itbe against twenty-two?” She let out a tinkling littlelaugh.

Diego and I had not looked away from eachother throughout all this, and I could see in hiseyes now that his thoughts were the same as mine.Yes, we’d been created for a purpose, as we’dguessed. We had an enemy. Or, our creator hadan enemy. Did the distinction matter?

“Decisions, decisions,” she muttered. “Notyet. Maybe one more handful, just to be sure.”

“Adding more might actually decrease ournumbers,” Riley cautioned hesitantly, as if beingcareful not to upset her. “It’s always unstable

when a new group is introduced.”“True,” she agreed, and I imagined Riley

sighing in relief that she was not upset.Abruptly Diego looked away from me,

staring out across the meadow. I hadn’t heard anymovement from the house, but maybe she hadcome out. My head whipped around at the sametime the rest of me turned to a statue, and I sawwhat had startled Diego.

Four figures were crossing the open field tothe house. They had entered the clearing from thewest, the point farthest from where we hid. Theyall wore long, dark cloaks with deep hoods, so atfirst I thought they were people. Weird people,but just humans all the same, because none of thevampires I knew had matching Goth clothes. Andnone moved in a way that was so smooth andcontrolled and… elegant. But then I realized thatnone of the humans I’d ever seen could move thatway, either, and what’s more, they couldn’t do itso quietly. The dark-cloaks skimmed across thelong grass in absolute silence. So either these were

vampires, or they were something elsesupernatural. Ghosts, maybe. But if they werevampires, they were vampires I didn’t know, andthat meant they might very well be these enemiesshe was talking about. If so, we should get the hellout of Dodge right now, because we didn’t havetwenty other vampires on our side at the moment.

I almost took off then, but I was too afraid todraw the attention of the cloaked figures.

So I watched them move smoothly forward,noticing other things about them. How they stayedin a perfect diamond formation that never was theslightest bit out of line no matter how the terrainchanged under their feet. How the one at the pointof the diamond was much smaller than the others,and its cloak was darker, too. How they didn’tseem to be tracking their way in—not trying tofollow the path of any scent. They simply knewtheir way. Maybe they were invited.

They moved directly toward the house, and Ifelt like it might be safe to breathe again when theystarted silently up the steps toward the front door.

They weren’t coming straight for Diego and me, atleast. When they were out of sight, we coulddisappear into the sound of the next breezethrough the trees, and they would never knowwe’d been here.

I looked at Diego and twitched my headslightly toward the way we’d come. He narrowedhis eyes and held up one finger. Oh great, hewanted to stay. I rolled my eyes at him, though Iwas so afraid, I was surprised I was capable ofsarcasm.

We both looked back to the house. Thecloaked things had let themselves in silently, but Irealized that neither she nor Riley had spokensince we’d caught sight of the visitors. They musthave heard something or known in some otherway that they were in danger.

“Don’t bother,” a very clear, monotone voicecommanded lazily. It was not as high-pitched asour creator’s, but it still sounded girlish to me. “Ithink you know who we are, so you must knowthat there is no point in trying to surprise us. Or

hide from us. Or fight us. Or run.”A deep, masculine chuckle that did not

belong to Riley echoed menacingly through thehouse.

“Relax,” instructed the first inflectionlessvoice—the cloaked girl. Her voice had thatdistinctive ring that made me certain she was avampire, not a ghost or any other kind ofnightmare. “We’re not here to destroy you. Yet.”

There was a moment of silence, and thensome barely audible movements. A shifting ofpositions.

“If you are not here to kill us, then… what?”our creator asked, strained and shrill.

“We seek to know your intentions here.Specifically, if they involve… a certain local clan,”the cloaked girl explained. “We wonder if theyhave anything to do with the mayhem you’vecreated here. Illegally created.”

Diego and I frowned simultaneously. Noneof this made sense, but the last part was theweirdest. What could be illegal for vampires?

What cop, what judge, what prison could havepower over us?

“Yes,” our creator hissed. “My plans are allabout them. But we can’t move yet. It’s tricky.” Apetulant note crept into her voice at the end.

“Trust me, we know the difficulties betterthan you. It is remarkable that you’ve managed tokeep off the radar, so to speak, for this long. Tellme”—a hint of interest colored the monotone—“how are you doing it?”

Our creator hesitated, and then spoke all in arush. Almost as if there had been some silentintimidation. “I haven’t made the decision,” shespit out. Then she added more slowly, unwillingly,“To attack. I’ve never decided to do anything withthem.”

“Rough, but effective,” the cloaked girl said.“Unfortunately, your period of deliberation hascome to a close. You must decide—now—whatyou will do with your little army.” Both Diego’sand my eyes widened at that word. “Otherwise, itwill be our duty to punish you as the law demands.

This reprieve, however short, troubles me. It is notour way. I suggest you give us what assurancesyou can… quickly.”

“We’ll go at once!” Riley volunteeredanxiously, and there was a sharp hiss.

“We’ll go as soon as possible,” our creatoramended furiously. “There is much to do. I assumeyou wish us to succeed? Then I must have a littletime to get them trained—instructed—fed!”

There was a short pause.“Five days. We will come for you then. And

there is no rock you can hide under or speed atwhich you can flee that will save you. If you havenot made your attack by the time we come, youwill burn.” This was said with no menace otherthan an absolute certainty.

“And if I have made my attack?” our creatorasked, shaken.

“We’ll see,” the cloaked girl answered in abrighter tone than she’d used yet. “I suppose thatall depends on how successful you are. Workhard to please us.” The last command was given in

a flat, hard pitch that made me feel a strange chillin the center of my body.

“Yes,” our creator snarled.“Yes,” Riley echoed in a whisper.A second later the cloaked vampires were

noiselessly exiting the house. Neither Diego nor Iso much as took a breath for five minutes afterthey’d disappeared. Inside the house, our creatorand Riley were just as quiet. Another ten minutespassed in total stillness.

I touched Diego’s arm. This was our chanceto get out of here. At the moment, I wasn’t soafraid of Riley anymore. I wanted to get as faraway as I could from those dark-cloaks. I wantedthe safety of numbers waiting back in the logcabin, and I figured that was exactly how ourcreator felt, too. Why she’d made so many of usin the first place. There were some things out therescarier than I’d imagined.

Diego hesitated, still listening, and a secondlater his patience was rewarded.

“Well,” she whispered inside the house,

“now they know.”Was she talking about the cloaks or the

mysterious clan? Which one was the enemy she’dmentioned before the drama?

“That doesn’t matter. We outnumber—”“Any warning matters!” she growled, cutting

him off. “There is so much to do. Only five days!”She groaned. “No more messing around. Youstart tonight.”

“I won’t fail you!” Riley promised.Crap. Diego and I moved at the same time,

leaping from our perch into the next tree over,flying back the way we’d come. Riley was in ahurry now, and if he found Diego’s trail after allthat had just passed with the cloaks, and no Diegothere at the end of it…

“I’ve got to get back and be waiting,” Diegowhispered to me as we raced. “Lucky it’s not inview of the house! Don’t want him to know Iheard.”

“We should talk to him together.”“Too late for that. He’d notice that your

scent wasn’t on the trail. Looks suspicious.”“Diego…” He’d trapped me into sitting this

one out.We were back to the spot where he’d joined

me. He spoke in a rushed whisper.“Stick to the plan, Bree. I’ll tell him what I

planned to tell him. It’s not close to dawn, butthat’s just how it has to be. If he doesn’t believeme…” Diego shrugged. “He’s got bigger things toworry about than me having an overactiveimagination. Maybe he’ll be more likely to listennow—looks like we need all the help we can get,and being able to move around in the day can’thurt.”

“Diego…,” I repeated, not knowing whatelse to say.

He looked into my eyes, and I waited for hislips to twitch into that easy smile, for him to makesome joke about ninjas or BFFs.

He didn’t. Instead, he leaned in slowly, nevermoving his eyes from mine, and kissed me. Hissmooth lips pressed against mine for one long

second while we stared at each other.Then he leaned away and sighed. “Get home,

hide behind Fred, and act clueless. I’ll be rightbehind you.”

“Be careful.”I grabbed his hand and squeezed it hard,

then let go. Riley had spoken of Diegoaffectionately. I would have to hope that affectionwas real. There wasn’t another choice.

Diego disappeared into the trees, quiet as arustling breeze. I didn’t waste time looking afterhim. I sprinted through the branches in a direct lineback to the house. I hoped my eyes were stillbright enough from last night’s meal to explain myabsence. Just a quick hunt. Got lucky—found alone hiker. Nothing out of the ordinary.

The sound of the thudding music that greetedmy approach was accompanied by theunmistakable sweet, smoky scent of a burningvampire. My panic went into overdrive. I couldjust as easily die inside the house as outside. Butthere was no other way. I didn’t slow, just rushed

down the stairs straight to the corner where Icould barely make out Freaky Fred standing.Looking for something to do? Tired of sitting? Ihad no idea what he was up to, and I didn’t care.I would stick tight to him until Riley and Diego gotback.

In the middle of the floor was a smolderingheap that was too big to be just a leg or an arm.So much for Riley’s twenty-two.

No one seemed terribly concerned about thesmoking remains. The sight was too common.

As I hurried closer to Fred, for once thesense of disgust didn’t get stronger. Instead, itfaded. He didn’t seem to notice me, just went onreading the book he held. One of those I’d left hima few days ago. I had no problem seeing what hewas doing now that I was close to where he wasleaning against the back of the couch. I hesitated,wondering why that was. Could he turn his nauseathing off when he wanted? Did that mean we bothwere unprotected right now? At least Raoulwasn’t home yet, thankfully, though Kevin was.

For the first time ever, I really saw what Fredlooked like. He was tall, maybe six two, with thethick, curly blond hair I’d noticed once before. Hewas broad-shouldered and muscular. He lookedolder than most of the others—like a collegestudent, not a high school kid. And—this was thepart that surprised me most for some reason—hewas good-looking. As handsome as anyone else,maybe even handsomer than most. I didn’t knowwhy that was so trippy for me. I guessed justbecause I always associated him with revulsion.

I felt weird for staring. I glanced quicklyaround the room to see if anyone had noticed thatFred was normal—and pretty—for the moment.No one was looking our way. I stole a fast peekat Kevin, ready to shift my focus at once if henoticed, but his eyes were concentrated on somepoint to the left of where we stood. He wasfrowning slightly. Before I could look away, hisgaze skipped right over to me and settled on myright side. His frown deepened. Like… he wastrying to see me and couldn’t.

I felt the corners of my mouth twitch into notquite a grin. There was too much to worry aboutto really enjoy Kevin’s blindness. I looked back atFred, wondering if the gross-out factor wouldreturn, only to see that he was smiling with me.Smiling, he was really spectacular.

Then the moment was over, and Fred wentback to his book. I didn’t move for a while,waiting for something to happen. For Diego tocome through the door. Or Riley with Diego. OrRaoul. Or for the nausea to hit again, or for Kevinto glare in my direction, or for the next fight tobreak out. Something.

When nothing did, I eventually pulled myselftogether and did what I should have been doing—pretending nothing unusual was going on. Igrabbed a book from the pile near Fred’s feet andthen sat down right there and acted like I wasreading. It was probably one of the same booksI’d pretended to read yesterday, but it didn’t lookfamiliar. I flipped through the pages, again takingnothing in.

My mind was racing around in tight littlecircles. Where was Diego? How had Rileyreacted to his story? What had it all meant—thetalk before the cloaks, the talk after the cloaks?

I worked through it, going backward, tryingto assemble the pieces into a recognizable picture.The vampire world had some kind of police, andthey were damn scary. This wild group of months-old vampires was supposed to be an army, andthis army was somehow illegal. Our creator had anenemy. Strike that, two enemies. We were goingto attack one of them in five days, or else the otherones, the scary cloaks, were going to attack her—or us, or both. We would be trained for thisattack… as soon as Riley got back. I snuck aglance at the door, then forced my eyes back tothe page in front of me. And then the stuff beforethe visitors. She was worrying about somedecision. She was pleased that she had so manyvampires—so many soldiers. Riley was happy thatDiego and I had survived…. He’d said he thoughthe’d lost two more to the sun, so that must mean

he didn’t know how vampires really reacted tosunlight. What she’d said was strange, though.She’d asked if he was sure. Sure Diego hadsurvived? Or… sure that Diego’s story was true?

The last thought frightened me. Did shealready know that the sun didn’t hurt us? If she didknow, then why had she lied to Riley and, throughhim, to us?

Why would she want to keep us in the dark—literally? Was it very important to her that westay ignorant? Important enough to get Diego introuble? I was working myself into a real panic,frozen solid. If I still could sweat, I would havebeen sweating now. I had to refocus to turn thenext page, to keep my eyes down.

Was Riley deceived, or was he in on it, too?When Riley’d said he thought he’d lost two moreto the sun, did he mean the sun literally… or the lieabout the sun?

If it was the second option, then to know thetruth meant being lost. Panic scattered mythoughts.

I tried to be rational and make sense of it. Itwas harder without Diego. Having someone totalk to, to interact with, sharpened my ability toconcentrate. Without that, fear sucked at theedges of my thoughts, twisted with the always-present thirst. The lure of blood was constantlyclose to the surface. Even now, decently well fed,I could feel the burn and the need.

Think about her, think about Riley, I toldmyself. I had to understand why they would lie—ifthey were lying—so that I could try to figure outwhat it would mean to them that Diego knew theirsecret.

If they hadn’t lied, if they’d just told us allthat the day was as safe for us as the night, howwould that change things? I imagined what itwould be like if we didn’t have to be contained ina blacked-out basement all day, if the twenty-oneof us—maybe fewer now, depending on how thehunting parties were getting along—were free todo what we wanted whenever we wanted to.

We would want to hunt. That was a given.

If we didn’t have to come back, if we didn’thave to hide… well, many of us wouldn’t comeback very regularly. It was hard to focus on thereturn while the thirst was in charge. But Riley haddrilled so deeply into all of us the threat of burning,of a return of that hideous pain we’d allexperienced once. That was the reason we couldstop ourselves. Self-preservation, the only instinctstronger than thirst.

So the threat kept us together. There wereother hiding places, like Diego’s cave, but whoelse thought about that kind of thing? We had aplace to go, a base, so we went to it. Clear headswere not a vampire specialty. Or, at least, theyweren’t the specialty of young vampires. Riley wasclearheaded. Diego was more clearheaded than Iwas. Those cloaked vampires were terrifyinglyfocused. I shuddered. So the routine wouldn’tcontrol us forever. What would they do when wewere older, clearer? It struck me that nobody wasolder than Riley. Everyone here was new. Sheneeded a bunch of us now for this mystery enemy.

But what about afterward?I had a strong feeling that I didn’t want to be

around for that part. And I suddenly realizedsomething stupendously obvious. It was thesolution that had tickled the edges of myunderstanding before, when I was tracking thevampire herd to this place with Diego.

I didn’t have to be around for that part. Ididn’t have to be around for one more night.

I was a statue again as I thought over thisstunning idea.

If Diego and I hadn’t known where the gangwas most likely headed, would we ever havefound them? Probably not. And that was a biggroup leaving a wide trail. What if it were a singlevampire, one who could leap up onto the land,maybe into a tree, without leaving a trail at theedge of the water…. Just one, or maybe twovampires who could swim as far out to sea as theywanted… Who could return to land anywhere…Canada, California, Chile, China…

You would never be able to find those two

vampires. They would be gone. Disappeared likethey’d gone up in smoke.

We didn’t have to come back the othernight! We shouldn’t have! Why hadn’t I thought ofit then?

But… would Diego have agreed? I wasabruptly not so sure of myself. Was Diego moreloyal to Riley after all? Would he have felt it washis responsibility to stand by Riley? He’d knownRiley a lot longer—he’d really only known me aday. Was he closer to Riley than he was to me?

I pondered that, frowning.Well, I would find out as soon as we had a

minute alone. And then maybe, if our secret clubreally meant something, it wouldn’t matter whatour creator had planned for us. We coulddisappear, and Riley would have to make do withnineteen vampires, or make some new ones quick.Either way, not our problem.

I couldn’t wait to tell Diego my plan. My gutinstinct was that he would feel the same.Hopefully.

Suddenly, I wondered if this was what hadreally happened to Shelly and Steve and the otherkids who had disappeared. I knew they hadn’tburned in the sun. Had Riley only claimed he’dseen their ashes as another way to keep the rest ofus afraid and dependent on him? Returning hometo him every dawn? Maybe Shelly and Steve hadjust set off on their own. No more Raoul. Noenemies or armies threatening their immediatefuture.

Maybe that’s what Riley had meant by lostto the sun. Runaways. In which case, he’d behappy that Diego hadn’t bailed, right?

If only Diego and I had taken off! We couldbe free, too, like Shelly and Steve. No rules, nofear of the sunrise.

Again, I imagined the whole horde of us onthe loose without a curfew. I could see Diego andme moving like ninjas through the shade. But Icould also see Raoul, Kevin, and the rest,sparkling disco-ball monsters in the center of abusy downtown street, the bodies piling up, the

screaming, the helicopters whirring, the soft,helpless cops with their dinky little bullets thatwouldn’t make a dent, the cameras, the panic thatwould spread so fast as the pictures bouncedswiftly around the globe.

Vampires wouldn’t be a secret for very long.Even Raoul couldn’t kill people fast enough tokeep the story from spreading.

There was a chain of logic here, and I triedto grasp it before I could be distracted again.

One, humans didn’t know about vampires.Two, Riley encouraged us to be inconspicuous,not to attract the notice of humans and educatethem otherwise. Three, Diego and I had decidedthat all vampires must be following that guideline,or else the world would know about us. Four,they must have a reason for doing so, and itwasn’t the little popguns of the human police thatmotivated them. Yeah, the reason must be prettyimportant to make all vampires hide all day long instuffy basements. Maybe reason enough to makeRiley and our creator lie to us, terrify us about the

burning sun. Maybe it was a reason Riley wouldexplain to Diego, and since it was so importantand he was so responsible, Diego would promiseto keep the secret and they would be cool withthat. Sure they would. But what if what actuallyhappened to Shelly and Steve was that they’ddiscovered the shiny skin thing and not run? Whatif they’d gone to Riley?

And, crap, there went the next step in mylogical path. The chain dissolved and I startedpanicking about Diego again.

As I stressed, I realized that I’d beenthinking things through for a while. I could feeldawn coming on. No more than an hour away. Sowhere was Diego? Where was Riley?

As I thought this, the door opened and Raoulleaped down the stairs, laughing with his buddies. Ihunched down, leaning closer to Fred. Raouldidn’t notice us. He looked at the crispy-friedvampire in the center of the floor and laughedharder. His eyes were brilliant red.

On the nights Raoul went hunting, he never

came home till he had to. He would keep feedingas long as he could. So dawn must have beeneven closer than I’d thought.

Riley must have demanded that Diego provehis words. That was the only explanation. Andthey were waiting for the dawn. Only… thatwould mean that Riley didn’t know the truth, thatour creator was lying to him, too. Or did it? Mythoughts twisted up again.

Kristie showed up minutes later with three ofher gang. She reacted indifferently to the pile ofashes. I did a quick head count as two morehunters hurried through the door. Twentyvampires. Everyone was home except Diego andRiley. The sun would rise at any moment.

The door at the top of the basement stairscreaked as someone opened it. I sprang to myfeet.

Riley entered. He shut the door behind him.He walked down the stairs.

No one followed.Before I could process this, Riley roared out

an animalistic shriek of rage. He was staring downat the ashy remains on the floor, his eyes bulging infury. Everyone stood silent, immobile. We’d allseen Riley lose his temper, but this was somethingdifferent.

Riley spun and raked his fingers through ablaring speaker, then ripped it from the wall andhurled it across the room. Jen and Kristie dodgedout of the way as it exploded into the far wall,sending up a cloud of pulverized drywall dust.Riley smashed the sound system with his foot, andthe thudding bass went silent. Then he leaped towhere Raoul stood, and grabbed him by thethroat.

“I wasn’t even here!” Raoul yelled, lookingafraid—I’d never seen that before.

Riley growled hideously and threw Raoul ashe’d thrown the speaker. Jen and Kristie jumpedout of the way again. Raoul’s body crashed rightthrough the wall, leaving an enormous hole.

Riley caught Kevin by the shoulder and—with a familiar screech—ripped off his right hand.

Kevin cried out in pain and tried to twist out ofRiley’s grip. Riley kicked him in the side. Anotherharsh shriek and Riley had the rest of Kevin’s arm.He tore the arm in half at the elbow and threw thepieces hard into Kevin’s anguished face—smack,smack, smack, like a hammer striking stone.

“What is wrong with you?” Riley screamedat us. “Why are you all so stupid?” He made agrab for the blond Spider-Man kid, but that kidleaped out of his way. His jump left him too closeto Fred, and he stumbled back toward Rileyagain, gagging.

“Do any of you have a brain?”Riley smacked a kid named Dean into the

entertainment center, shattering it, then caughtanother girl—Sara—and tore her left ear and ahandful of hair from her head. She snarled inanguish.

It became suddenly obvious that Riley wasdoing a very dangerous thing. There were a lot ofus in here. Already Raoul was back, with Kristieand Jen—usually his enemies—flanking him

defensively. A few others banded together inclusters around the room.

I wasn’t sure if Riley was aware of the threator if his rant came to an end naturally. He took adeep breath. He tossed Sara her ear and the hair.She recoiled away from him, licking the torn edgeof her ear, coating it with venom so that it wouldreattach. There was no remedy for the hair,though; Sara was going to have a bald spot.

“Listen to me!” Riley said, quiet but fierce.“All our lives depend on you listening to what I’msaying now and thinking! We are all going to die.Every one of us, you and me, too, if you can’t actlike you have brains for just a few short days!”

This was nothing like his usual lectures andpleadings for control. He definitely had everyone’sattention.

“It’s time for you to grow up and takeresponsibility for yourselves. Do you think you getto live like this for free? That all the blood inSeattle doesn’t have a price?”

The little clusters of vampires no longer

seemed threatening. Everyone was wide-eyed,some exchanging mystified glances. I saw Fred’shead turn toward me in my peripheral vision, but Ididn’t meet his gaze. My attention was focused ontwo things: Riley, just in case he started to attackagain, and the door. The door that was still closed.

“Are you listening now? Really listening?”Riley paused, but no one nodded. The room wasvery still. “Let me explain to you the precarioussituation we are all in. I’ll try to keep it simple forthe slowest ones. Raoul, Kristie, come here.”

He motioned to the leaders of the two largestgangs, allied for this brief moment against him.Neither of them moved toward him. They bracedthemselves, Kristie baring her teeth.

I expected Riley to soften, to apologize. Toplacate them and then persuade them to do whathe wanted. But this was a different Riley.

“Fine,” he snapped. “We’re going to needleaders if we’re going to survive, but apparentlyneither of you is up to the task. I thought you hadaptitude. I was wrong. Kevin, Jen, please join me

as the heads of this team.”Kevin looked up in surprise. He had just

finished putting his arm back together. Though hisexpression was wary, it was also unmistakablyflattered. He slowly got to his feet. Jen looked atKristie as if waiting for permission. Raoul groundhis teeth together.

The door at the top of the stairs did notopen.

“Are you not able, either?” Riley asked,irritated.

Kevin took a step toward Riley, but thenRaoul rushed him, leaping across the long room intwo low bounds. He shoved Kevin against thewall without a word and then stood by Riley’sright shoulder.

Riley permitted himself a tiny smile. Themanipulation wasn’t subtle, but it was effective.

“Kristie or Jen, who will lead us?” Rileyasked with a hint of amusement in his voice.

Jen was still waiting for a sign from Kristie asto what she should do. Kristie glowered at Jen for

an instant, then flipped her sandy hair out of herface and darted to stand on Riley’s other side.

“That took too long to decide,” Riley saidseriously. “We don’t have the luxury of time. Wedon’t get to fool around anymore. I’ve let you alldo pretty much whatever you feel like, but thatends tonight.”

He looked around the room, meetingeveryone’s eyes, making sure we were listening. Iheld his gaze for only a second when it was myturn, and then my eyes flipped back to the door. Icorrected instantly, but his glare had moved on. Iwondered if he’d noticed my slip. Or had he seenme at all, here beside Fred?

“We have an enemy,” Riley announced. Helet that sink in for a moment. I could tell the ideawas shocking to several of the vampires in thebasement. The enemy was Raoul—or if you werewith Raoul, the enemy was Kristie. The enemywas here, because the whole world was here. Thethought that there were other forces out therestrong enough to affect us was new for most.

Would have been new to me, too, yesterday.“A few of you might be smart enough to have

realized that if we exist, so do other vampires.Other vampires who are older, smarter… moretalented. Other vampires who want our blood!”

Raoul hissed, and then several of hisfollowers echoed him in support.

“That’s right,” Riley said, seeming intent onegging them on. “Seattle was once theirs, but theymoved on a long time ago. Now they know aboutus, and they are jealous of the easy blood theyused to have here. They know it belongs to usnow, but they want to take it back. They arecoming after what they want. One by one, they’llhunt us down! We’ll burn while they feast!”

“Never,” Kristie growled. Some of hers andsome of Raoul’s growled, too.

“We don’t have a lot of choices,” Riley toldus. “If we wait for them to show up here, they willhave the advantage. This is their turf, after all. Andthey don’t want to face us head-on, because weoutnumber them and we are stronger than they

are. They want to catch us separated; they want totake advantage of our biggest weakness. Are anyof you smart enough to know what that is?” Hepointed at the ashes at his feet—now smeared intothe carpet and unrecognizable as a former vampire—and waited.

No one moved.Riley made a disgusted sound. “Unity!” he

shouted. “We don’t have it! What kind of a threatcan we pose when we won’t stop killing eachother?” He kicked the dust, sending up a smallblack cloud. “Can you imagine them laughing atus? They think taking the city from us will be easy.That we’re weak with stupidity! That we’ll justhand them our blood.”

Half the vampires in the room snarled inprotest now.

“Can you work together, or do we all die?”“We can take them, boss,” Raoul growled.Riley scowled at him. “Not if you can’t

control yourself! Not if you can’t cooperate withevery single person in this room. Anyone you take

out”—his toe nudged the ashes again—“might bethe one who could have kept you alive. Every oneof your coven that you kill is like handing ourenemies a gift. Here, you’re saying, take medown!”

Kristie and Raoul exchanged a glance as ifthey were seeing each other for the first time.Others did the same. The word coven was notunfamiliar, but none of us had applied it to ourgroup before. We were a coven.

“Let me tell you about our enemies,” Rileysaid, and all eyes locked on his face. “They are amuch older coven than we are. They’ve beenaround for hundreds of years, and they’vesurvived that long for a reason. They are craftyand they are skilled and they are coming to retakeSeattle with confidence—because they’ve heardthe only ones they’ll have to fight for it are a bunchof disorganized children who will do half theirwork for them!”

More growls, but some were less angry thanthey were wary. A few of the quieter vampires,

the ones Riley would have called tamer, lookedskittish.

Riley noticed that, too. “This is how they seeus, but that’s because they can’t see us together.Together, we can crush them. If they could see allof us, side by side, fighting together, they would beterrified. And that’s how they’re going to see us.Because we’re not going to wait for them to showup here and start picking us off. We’re going toambush them. In four days.”

Four days? I guessed our creator didn’t wantto cut it too close to the deadline. I looked at theclosed door again. Where was Diego?

Others reacted to the deadline with surprise,some with fear.

“It’s the last thing they’ll expect,” Rileyassured us. “All of us—together—waiting forthem. And I’ve saved the best part for last. Thereare only seven of them.”

There was an instant of incredulous silence.Then Raoul said, “What?”Kristie stared at Riley with the same

disbelieving expression, and I heard mutteredwhispers around the room.

“Seven?”“Are you kidding me?”“Hey,” Riley snapped. “I wasn’t joking when

I said this coven is dangerous. They are wiseand… devious. Underhanded. We will havepower on our side; they will have deception. If weplay it their way, they will win. But if we take it tothem on our terms…” Riley didn’t finish, he justsmiled.

“Let’s go now,” Raoul urged. “Let’s get ’emout of the picture fast.” Kevin growledenthusiastically.

“Slow down, moron. Rushing into thingsblind isn’t going to help us win,” Riley chided him.

“Tell us everything we need to know aboutthem,” Kristie encouraged, shooting Raoul asuperior look.

Riley hesitated, as if deciding how to wordsomething. “All right, where to begin? I guess thefirst thing you need to know is… that you don’t

know everything there is to know about vampiresyet. I didn’t want to overwhelm you in thebeginning.” Another pause while everyone lookedconfused. “You have a little bit of experience withwhat we call ‘talents.’ We have Fred.”

Everyone looked at Fred—or rather theytried to. I could tell from Riley’s expression thatFred did not like being singled out. It looked likeFred had really turned up the volume on his“talent,” as Riley called it. Riley cringed andlooked away quickly. I still didn’t feel anything.

“Yes, well, there are some vampires whohave gifts beyond the usual super strength andsuper senses. You’ve seen one aspect in… ourcoven.” He was careful not to say Fred’s nameagain. “Gifts are rare—one in fifty, maybe—butevery one is different. There’s a huge range of giftsout there, and some of them are more powerfulthan others.”

I could hear a lot of murmurs now as peoplewondered if they might be talented. Raoul waspreening like he’d already decided he was gifted.

As far as I could tell, the only one around here thatwas in any way special was standing next to me.

“Pay attention!” Riley commanded. “I’m nottelling you this for entertainment.”

“This enemy coven,” Kristie interjected.“They’re talented. Right?”

Riley gave her an approving nod. “Exactly.I’m glad someone here can connect the dots.”

Raoul’s upper lip twitched back over histeeth.

“This coven is dangerously talented,” Rileywent on, his voice dropping to a hushed whisper.“They have a mind reader.” He examined ourfaces, looking to see if we got the importance ofthis revelation. He didn’t seem satisfied with hisassessment. “Think, guys! He’ll know everythingin your head. If you attack, he’ll know what moveyou’re going to make before you know it. You goleft, he’ll be waiting.”

There was a nervous stillness as everyoneimagined this.

“This is why we’ve been so careful—me,

and the one who created you.”Kristie flinched away from Riley when he

mentioned her. Raoul looked angrier. Nervesstrained universally.

“You don’t know her name, and you don’tknow what she looks like. This protects us all. Ifthey’d stumbled across one of you alone, theywouldn’t realize that you were connected to her,and they might have let you be. If they knew youwere part of her coven, there would be no delay inyour execution.”

That didn’t make sense to me. Didn’t thesecrecy protect her more than it protected any ofus? Riley hurried on before we had too long toexamine his statement.

“Of course, it doesn’t matter now thatthey’ve decided to move on Seattle. We willsurprise them on their way in, and we willannihilate them.” He whistled a single low notethrough his teeth. “Done. And then not only is thecity all ours, other covens will know not to messwith us. We won’t have to be so careful to cover

our tracks anymore. As much blood as you want,for everyone. Hunting every night. We’ll moveright into the city, and we will rule it.”

The growls and snarls were like applause.Everyone was with him. Except for me. I didn’tmove, didn’t make a sound. Neither did Fred, butwho knows why that was?

I was not with Riley because his promisessounded like lies. Or else my whole line of logichad been wrong. Riley said it was only theseenemies that kept us from hunting without cautionor restraint. But that didn’t go along with the factthat all other vampires must have been discreet, orhumans would have known about them long ago.

I couldn’t concentrate to work it out,because the door at the top of the stairs had notmoved. Diego…

“We have to do this together, though. TodayI’m going to lead you through some techniques.Fighting techniques. There’s more to this than justscuffling around on the floor like toddlers. When itgets dark, we’ll go outside and practice. I want

you to practice hard, but keep your focus. I amnot losing another member of this coven! We allneed each other—every one of us. I will nottolerate any more stupidity. If you think you don’thave to listen to me, you are wrong.” He pausedfor a short second, the muscles in his face shiftinginto a new arrangement. “And you will learn howwrong you are when I take you to her”—Ishuddered and felt the tremor through the room aseveryone else did, too—“and hold you while shetears off your legs and then slowly, slowly burnsoff your fingers, ears, lips, tongue, and every othersuperfluous appendage one by one.”

We’d all lost a limb, at least, and we’d allburned when we became vampires, so we couldeasily imagine how that would feel, but it wasn’tthe threat itself that was so terrifying. The trulyscary thing was Riley’s face as he said it. His facewas not twisted in rage, the way it usually waswhen he was angry; it was calm and cold, smoothand beautiful, his mouth curled at the edges into asmall smile. I suddenly had the impression that this

was a new Riley. Something had changed him,hardened him, but I couldn’t imagine what couldhave happened in one night to create that cruel,perfect smile.

I looked away, shivering a little, and saw asRaoul’s smile shifted to echo Riley’s. I couldalmost see the gears turning in Raoul’s head. Hewouldn’t kill his victims so quickly in the future.

“Now, let’s get some teams figured out sothat we can work in groups,” Riley said, his facenormal again. “Kristie, Raoul, get your kidstogether and then divvy up the rest evenly. Nofighting! Show me you can do this rationally.Prove yourselves.”

He walked away from those two, ignoringthe fact that they fell almost immediately intobickering, and made an arc around the outsideedge of the room. He touched a few vampires onthe shoulder as he passed, nudging them towardone of the new leaders or the other. I didn’t realizeat first that he was heading in my direction,because he took such a wide way around.

“Bree,” he said, squinting toward where Istood. It looked like this took some effort.

I felt like a block of ice. He must havesmelled my trail. I was dead.

“Bree?” he said, softer now. His voicereminded me of the first time he’d talked to me.When he was nice to me. And then even lower, “Ipromised Diego I’d give you a message. He saidto tell you it was a ninja thing. Does that make anysense to you?”

He still couldn’t look at me, but he wasedging closer.

“Diego?” I murmured. I couldn’t help myself.Riley smiled a tiny bit. “Can we talk?” He

jerked his head toward the door. “I double-checked all the windows. The first floor is totallydark and safe.”

I knew I wouldn’t be as safe once I walkedaway from Fred, but I had to hear what Diego hadwanted to tell me. What had happened? I shouldhave stayed with him to meet Riley.

I followed Riley through the room, keeping

my head down. He gave Raoul a few instructions,nodded to Kristie, and then went up the stairs.From the corners of my eyes I saw a few peoplecuriously watch the direction he was going.

Riley passed through the door first, and thekitchen of the home was, as he’d promised, totallyblack. He motioned for me to keep following andled me through a dark hall past a few openbedroom doors, then through another door with adead bolt. We ended up in the garage.

“You’re brave,” he commented in a very lowvoice. “Or really trusting. I thought it would bemore work to get you upstairs with the sun up.”

Whoops. I should have been more skittish.Too late now. I shrugged.

“So you and Diego are pretty tight, right?” heasked, just breathing the words. Probably, ifeveryone were silent in the basement, they wouldstill be able to hear him, but it was pretty noisydown there right now.

I shrugged again. “He saved my life,” Iwhispered.

Riley lifted his chin, almost but not quite anod, and appraised. Did he believe me? Did hethink I still feared the day?

“He’s the best,” Riley said. “The smartest kidI’ve got.”

I nodded once.“We had a little meeting about the situation.

We agreed that we need some surveillance. Goingin blind is too dangerous. He’s the only one I trustto scout ahead.” He exhaled, almost angrily.“Wish I had two of him! Raoul’s got too short afuse and Kristie is too self-absorbed to get the bigpicture, but they’re the best I’ve got, and I’ll haveto make do. Diego said you were smart, too.”

I waited, not sure how much of our storyRiley knew.

“I need your help with Fred. Wow, that kidis strong! I couldn’t even look at him tonight.”

I nodded cautiously again.“Imagine if our enemies can’t even look at

us. It will be so easy!”I didn’t think Fred would like that idea, but

maybe I was wrong. He didn’t seem like he caredanything for this coven of ours. Would he want tosave us? I didn’t respond to Riley.

“You spend a lot of time with him.”I shrugged. “Nobody bothers me there. It’s

not easy.”Riley pursed his lips and nodded. “Smart,

like Diego said.”“Where is Diego?”I shouldn’t have asked. The words just

ripped out of their own accord. I waited anxiously,trying to look indifferent and most likely failing.

“We don’t have time to waste. I sent himsouth the second I found out what was coming. Ifour enemies decide to attack early, we need theadvance warning. Diego will meet up with us whenwe move against them.”

I tried to imagine where Diego was now. Iwished I were there with him. Maybe I could talkhim out of doing Riley’s bidding and puttinghimself in the line of fire in the process. But maybenot. It seemed like Diego was thick with Riley, just

like I’d worried.“Diego wanted me to tell you something.”My eyes snapped to his face. Too fast, too

eager. Blew it again.“Sounded like nonsense to me. He said, ‘Tell

Bree I’ve got the handshake figured out. I’ll showher in four days, when we meet up.’ I have noidea what that means. Do you?”

I tried to force a poker face. “Maybe. Hedid say something about needing a secrethandshake. For his underwater cave. Some kindof password. He was just kidding around, though.I’m not sure what he means now.”

Riley chuckled. “Poor Diego.”“What?”“I think that kid likes you a lot more than you

like him.”“Oh.” I looked away, confused. Was Diego

giving me this message as a way to let me know Icould trust Riley? But he hadn’t told Riley I knewabout the sun. Still, he must have trusted Riley totell him so much, to show Riley that he cared

about me. I thought it would be wiser to keep mymouth shut, though. Too much had changed.

“Don’t write him off yet, Bree. He’s the best,like I said. Give him a chance.”

Riley was giving me romantic advice? Thiscould not get weirder. I bobbed my head onceand muttered, “Sure.”

“See if you can talk to Fred. Make sure he’son board.”

I shrugged. “I’ll do what I can.”Riley smiled. “Great. I’ll pull you aside

before we leave, and you can tell me how it went.I’ll keep it casual, not like tonight. I don’t wanthim to feel like I’m spying on him.”

“Okay.”Riley motioned for me to follow and then

headed back to the basement.The training lasted all day, but I wasn’t part

of it. After Riley went back to his team leaders, Itook my spot beside Fred. The others had beendivided up into four groups of four, with Raoul andKristie directing them. No one had picked Fred

for a side, or maybe he’d ignored them, or maybethey couldn’t even see that he was there. I couldstill see him. He stood out—the only one notparticipating, a big blond elephant in the room.

I had no desire to insinuate myself into eitherRaoul’s team or Kristie’s, so I just watched. Noone seemed to notice that I was sitting out withFred. Though we must have been somewhatinvisible, thanks to talented Fred, I felt horriblyobvious. I wished I were invisible to myself—thatI could see the illusion so that I could trust it. Butno one noticed us, and after a while I could almostrelax.

I watched the practicing closely. I wanted toknow everything, just in case. I wasn’t planning onfighting; I was planning on finding Diego andmaking a break for it. But what if Diego wanted tofight? Or what if we had to fight to get away fromthe rest? Better to pay attention.

Only once did anyone ask about Diego. Itwas Kevin, but I had a sense that Raoul had puthim up to it.

“So, did Diego end up getting fried after all?”Kevin asked in a forced joking tone.

“Diego’s with her,” Riley said, and no onehad to ask who he meant. “Surveillance.”

A few people shuddered. No one saidanything more about Diego.

Was he really with her? I cringed at thethought. Maybe Riley was just saying that to keeppeople from questioning him. He probably didn’twant Raoul getting jealous and feeling second bestwhen Riley needed him at his most arrogant today.I couldn’t be sure, and I wasn’t going to ask. Ikept quiet, as usual, and watched the training.

In the end, watching was boring, thirstywork. Riley didn’t give his army a break for threedays and two nights straight. During the daytime itwas harder to stay out of the mix—we all werecrammed so tightly into the basement. It madethings easier in one way for Riley—he couldusually catch a fight before it got ugly. Outside atnight, they had more room to really work aroundeach other, but Riley was kept busy darting back

and forth to catch limbs and get them back to theirowners quickly. He kept his temper well, and he’dbeen smart enough to find all the lighters this time.I would have bet that this would spin out ofcontrol, that we’d lose at least a couple of covenmembers with Raoul and Kristie skirmishing headto head for days on end. But Riley had bettercontrol of them than I had thought possible.

Still, it was mostly repetition. I noticed Rileysaying the same things over and over and overagain. Work together, watch your back, don’t goat her head-on; work together, watch your back,don’t go at him head-on; work together, watchyour back, don’t go at her head-on. It was kind ofridiculous, really, and made the group seemexceptionally stupid. But I was sure I would havebeen just as stupid if I’d been in the thick of thefight with them rather than watching calmly fromthe sidelines with Fred.

It reminded me in a way of how Riley haddrilled into us our fear of the sun. Constantrepetition.

Still, it was so dull that after about ten hoursthat first day, Fred produced a deck of cards andstarted playing solitaire. That was more interestingthan watching the same mistakes over and overagain, so I mostly watched him.

After about another twelve hours—we wereinside again—I nudged Fred to point out a red fivethat he could move over. He nodded and madethe change. After that hand, he dealt out the cardsto both of us, and we played rummy. We neverspoke, but Fred smiled a few times. No one everlooked our way or asked us to join in.

There were no hunting breaks, and as timewent on, this got harder and harder to ignore.Fights broke out more regularly and with lessprovocation. Riley’s commands got more shrill,and he tore off two arms himself. I tried to forgetthe burning thirst as much as possible—after all,Riley must have been getting thirsty, too, so thiscouldn’t last forever—but mostly thirst was theonly thing on my mind. Fred was looking prettystrained.

Early into the third night—one more day togo, and when I thought about the ticking clock ittied my empty stomach into knots—Riley called allthe mock fights to a halt.

“Round it up, kids,” he told us, and everyonemoved into a loose half-circle facing him. Theoriginal gangs all stood close together, so thepracticing hadn’t changed any of those alliances.Fred put the cards in his back pocket and stoodup. I stood close to his side, counting on hisrepulsive aura to hide me.

“You’ve done well,” Riley told us. “Tonight,you get a reward. Drink up, because tomorrowyou’re going to want your strength.”

Snarls of relief from almost everyone.“I say want and not need for a reason,” Riley

went on. “I think you guys have got this. You’vestayed smart and worked hard. Our enemiesaren’t going to know what’s hit them!”

Kristie and Raoul growled, and both of theircompanies followed suit immediately. I wassurprised to see it, but they did look like an army

in that moment. Not that they were marching information or anything, but there was justsomething uniform about the response. Like theyall were part of one big organism. As always, Fredand I were the glaring exceptions, but I thoughtonly Riley was even the slightest bit aware of us—every now and then his eyes would scan acrosswhere we were standing, almost like he waschecking to make sure he still felt Fred’s talent.And Riley didn’t seem to mind that we weren’tjoining up. For now, anyway.

“Um, you mean tomorrow night, right,boss?” Raoul clarified.

“Right,” Riley said with a strange little smile.It didn’t seem like anyone else noticed anything offin his reply—except for Fred. He looked down atme with one eyebrow raised. I shrugged.

“You ready for your reward?” Riley asked.His little army roared in response.“Tonight you get a taste of what our world

will be like when our competition is out of thepicture. Follow me!”

Riley bounded away; Raoul and his teamwere right on his heels. Kristie’s group startedshoving and clawing right through the middle ofthem to get to the front.

“Don’t make me change my mind!” Rileybellowed from the trees ahead. “You can all gothirsty. I don’t care!”

Kristie barked an order and her groupsullenly fell behind Raoul’s. Fred and I waited untilthe last of them was out of sight. Then Fred didone of those little ladies first sweeps with his arm.It didn’t feel like he was afraid to have me at hisback, just that he was being polite. I startedrunning after the army.

The others were already long gone, but itwas nothing to follow their smell. Fred and I ran incompanionable silence. I wondered what he wasthinking. Maybe he was only thirsty. I wasburning, so he probably was, too.

We caught up to the others after about fiveminutes, but kept our distance. The army wasmoving in amazing quiet. They were focused, and

more… disciplined. I kind of wished that Rileyhad started the training sooner. It was easier to bearound this group.

We crossed over an empty two-lanefreeway, another strip of forest, and then we wereon a beach. The water was smooth, and we’dgone almost due north, so this must have been thestrait. We hadn’t passed near any residences, andI was sure that was on purpose. Thirsty and onedge, it wouldn’t take too much to dissolve thissmall measure of organization into a screamingfree-for-all.

We’d never hunted all together before, and Iwas pretty sure that it was not a good idea now. Iremembered Kevin and the Spider-Man kidfighting over the woman in the car that first nightI’d talked to Diego. Riley had better have a wholelot of bodies for us or people were going to starttearing each other up to get the most blood.

Riley paused at the water’s edge.“Don’t hold back,” he told us. “I want you

well fed and strong—at your peak. Now… let’s

go have some fun.”He dove smoothly into the surf. The others

were growling excitedly as they submerged, too.Fred and I followed more closely than beforebecause we couldn’t follow their scent underwater. But I could feel that Fred was hesitant—ready to bolt if this was something other than anall-you-can-eat smorgasbord. It seemed like hedidn’t trust Riley any more than I did.

We didn’t swim long, and then we saw theothers kicking upward. Fred and I surfaced last,and Riley started talking as soon as our headswere out of the water, like he’d been waiting forus. He must have been more aware of Fred thanthe others were.

“There she is,” he said, waving toward alarge ferry chugging south, probably making thelast commuter run of the night down from Canada.“Give me a minute. When the power goes out,she’s all yours.”

There was an excited murmur. Someonegiggled. Riley was off like a shot, and seconds

later we saw him fly up the side of the big boat.He headed straight for the control tower on top ofthe ship. Silencing the radio was my bet. He couldsay all he wanted about these enemies being ourreason for caution, but I was sure there was moreto it than that. Humans weren’t supposed to knowabout vampires. At least, not for very long. Justlong enough for us to kill them.

Riley kicked a big plate-glass window out ofhis way and disappeared into the tower. Fiveseconds later, the lights went out.

I realized Raoul was already gone. He musthave submerged so we wouldn’t hear himswimming after Riley. Everyone else took off, andthe water churned as if an enormous school ofbarracuda were attacking.

Fred and I swam at a relatively leisurely pacebehind them. In a funny way, it was like we weresome old married couple. We never talked, butwe still did things at exactly the same time.

We got to the boat about three secondslater, and already the air was full of shrieks and the

warm scent of blood. The smell made me realizeexactly how thirsty I was, but that was the lastthing I realized. My brain shut down completely.There was nothing but fiery pain in my throat andthe delicious blood—blood everywhere—promising to put that fire out.

When it was over and there wasn’t a heartleft beating on the whole ship, I wasn’t sure howmany people I’d personally killed. More thantriple the number I’d ever had on a hunting tripbefore, easy. I felt hot and flushed. I’d drunk longpast the point at which my thirst was totallyslaked, just for the taste of the blood. Most of theblood on the ferry was clean and luscious—thesepassengers had not been dregs. Though I hadn’theld back, I was probably at the low end of thekill count. Raoul was so surrounded by mangledbodies that they actually made a little hill. He saton top of his pile of the dead and laughed loudly tohimself.

He wasn’t the only one laughing. The darkboat was full of sounds of delight. I heard Kristie

say, “That was amazing—three cheers for Riley!”Some of her crowd put up a raucous chorus ofhurrahs like a bunch of happy drunks.

Jen and Kevin swung onto the view deck,dripping wet. “Got ’em all, boss,” Jen called toRiley. So some people must have tried to swim forit. I hadn’t noticed.

I looked around for Fred. It took me a whileto find him. I finally realized that I couldn’t lookdirectly at the back corner by the vendingmachines, and I headed that way. At first I felt likethe rocking ferry was making me seasick, but thenI got close enough that the feeling faded and Icould see Fred standing by the window. He smiledat me quickly, and then looked over my head. Ifollowed his gaze and saw that he was watchingRiley. I got the feeling that he’d been doing this forsome time.

“Okay, kids,” Riley said. “You’ve had ataste of the sweet life, but now we’ve got work todo!”

They all roared enthusiastically.

“I’ve got three last things to tell you—andone of those things involves a little dessert—solet’s sink this scow and get home!”

With laughter mixed in with the snarls, thearmy went to work dismantling the boat. Fred andI bailed out the window and watched the demofrom a short distance. It didn’t take long for theferry to crumple in the middle with a loud groan ofmetal. The midsection went down first, with boththe bow and the stern twisting up to point to thesky. They sank one at a time, the stern beating thebow by a few seconds. The school of barracudaheaded toward us. Fred and I started swimmingfor shore.

We ran home with the others—thoughkeeping our distance. A couple of times Fredlooked at me like he had something he wanted tosay, but each time he seemed to change his mind.

Back at the house, Riley let the celebratorymood wind down. Even after a few hours hadpassed, he still had his hands full trying to geteveryone serious again. For once it wasn’t a fight

he was trying to defuse, just high spirits. If Riley’spromises were false, as I thought, he was going tohave an issue when the ambush was over. Nowthat all these vampires had really feasted, theyweren’t going to go back to any measure ofrestraint very easily. For tonight, though, Riley wasa hero.

Finally—a while after I would have guessedthat the sun was up outside—everyone was quietand paying attention. From their faces, it seemedthey were ready to hear just about anything he hadto say.

Riley stood halfway up the stairs, his faceserious.

“Three things,” he began. “First, we want tobe sure we get the right coven. If we accidentallyrun across another clan and slaughter them, we’lltip our hand. We want our enemies overconfidentand unprepared. There are two things that markthis coven, and they’re pretty hard to miss. One,they look different—they have yellow eyes.”

There was a murmur of confusion.

“Yellow?” Raoul repeated in a disgustedtone.

“There’s a lot of the vampire world out therethat you haven’t encountered yet. I told you thesevampires were old. Their eyes are weaker thanours—yellowed with age. Another advantage toour side.” He nodded to himself as if to say, onedown. “But other old vampires exist, so there isanother way that we’ll know them for sure… andthis is where the dessert I mentioned comes intoplay.” Riley smiled slyly and waited a beat. “This isgoing to be hard to process,” he warned. “I don’tunderstand it, but I’ve seen it for myself. These oldvampires have gone so soft that they actually keep—as a member of their coven—a pet human.”

His revelation was met by blank silence.Total disbelief.

“I know—hard to swallow. But it’s true.We’ll know it’s definitely them because a humangirl will be with them.”

“Like… how?” Kristie asked. “You meanthey carry meals around with them or something?”

“No, it’s always the same girl, just the one,and they don’t plan to kill her. I don’t know howthey manage it, or why. Maybe they just like to bedifferent. Maybe they want to show off their self-control. Maybe they think it makes them lookstronger. It makes no sense to me. But I’ve seenher. More than that, I’ve smelled her.”

Slow and dramatic, Riley reached into hisjacket and pulled out a small ziplock bag with redfabric wadded up inside.

“I’ve done some recon in the past fewweeks, checking the yellow-eyes out as soon asthey got near the area.” He paused to throw us apaternal look. “I watch out for my kids. Anyway,when I could tell that they were moving on us, Igrabbed this”—he brandished the bag—“to helpus track them. I want you all to get a lock on thisscent.”

He handed the bag to Raoul, who openedthe plastic zipper and inhaled deeply. He glancedup at Riley with a startled look.

“I know,” Riley said. “Amazing, right?”

Raoul handed the bag to Kevin, his eyesnarrowing in thought.

One by one, each vampire sniffed the bag,and everyone reacted with wide eyes but littleelse. I was curious enough that I sidled away fromFred until I could feel a hint of the nausea andknew I was outside his circle. I crept forward untilI was next to the Spider-Man kid, who seemed tobe at the tail end of the line. He sniffed inside thebag when it was his turn and then seemed about tohand it back to the kid who had given it to him,but I held my hand out and hissed quietly. He dida double take—almost like he’d never see mebefore—and handed me the bag.

It looked like the red fabric was a shirt. Istuck my nose in the opening, keeping my eyes onthe vampires near me, just in case, and inhaled.

Ah. I understood the expressions now andfelt a similar one on my face. Because the humanwho had worn this shirt had seriously sweet blood.When Riley said dessert, he was dead right. Onthe other hand, I was less thirsty than I’d ever

been. So while my eyes widened in appreciation, Ididn’t feel enough pain in my throat to make megrimace. It would be awesome to taste this blood,but in that exact moment, it didn’t hurt me that Icouldn’t.

I wondered how long it would take for me toget thirsty again. Usually, a few hours afterfeeding, the pain would start to come back, andthen it would just get worse and worse until—aftera couple of days—it was impossible to ignore iteven for a second. Would the excessive amount ofblood I’d just drunk delay that? I guessed I’d seepretty soon.

I glanced around to make sure no one waswaiting for the bag, because I thought Fred wouldprobably be curious, too. Riley caught my eye,smiled the tiniest bit, and jerked his chin slightlytoward the corner where Fred was. Which mademe want to do the exact opposite of what I’d justbeen planning, but whatever. I didn’t want Riley tobe suspicious of me.

I walked back to Fred, ignoring the nausea

until it faded and I was right next to him. I handedhim the bag. He seemed pleased I’d thought toinclude him; he smiled and then sniffed the shirt.After a second he nodded thoughtfully to himself.He gave me the bag back with a significant look.The next time we were alone, I thought he wouldsay aloud whatever it was he had seemed to wantto share before.

I tossed the bag toward Spider-Man, whoreacted like it had fallen out of the sky but stillcaught it before it hit the ground.

Everyone was buzzing about the scent. Rileyclapped his hands together twice.

“Okay, so there’s the dessert I was talkingabout. The girl will be with the yellow-eyes. Andwhoever gets to her first gets dessert. Simple asthat.”

Appreciative growls, competitive growls.Simple, yes, but… wrong. Weren’t we

supposed to be destroying the yellow-eyedcoven? Unity was supposed to be the key, not afirst-come, first-served prize that only one vampire

could win. The only guaranteed outcome from thisplan was one dead human. I could think of half adozen more productive ways to motivate thisarmy. The one who kills the most yellow-eyeswins the girl. The one who shows the best teamcooperation gets the girl. The one who sticks tothe plan best. The one who follows orders best.MVP, etc. The focus should be on the danger,which was definitely not the human.

I looked around at the others and decidedthat none of them were following the same train ofthought. Raoul and Kristie were glaring at eachother. I heard Sara and Jen arguing in whispersabout the possibility of sharing the prize.

Well, maybe Fred got it. He was frowning,too.

“And the last thing,” Riley said. For the firsttime there was some reluctance in his voice. “Thiswill probably be even harder to accept, so I’llshow you. I won’t ask you to do anything I won’tdo. Remember that—I’m with you guys everystep of the way.”

The vampires got real still again. I noticedthat Raoul had the ziplock back and was grippingit possessively.

“There are so many things you have yet tolearn about being a vampire,” Riley said. “Some ofthem make more sense than others. This is one ofthose things that won’t sound right at first, but I’veexperienced it myself, and I’ll show you.” Hedeliberated for a long second. “Four times a year,the sun shines at a certain indirect angle. Duringthat one day, four times a year, it is safe… for usto be outside in the daylight.”

Every tiny movement stopped. There was nobreathing. Riley was talking to a bunch of statues.

“One of those special days is beginning now.The sun that is rising outside today won’t hurt anyof us. And we are going to use this rare exceptionto surprise our enemies.”

My thoughts spun around and turned upsidedown. So Riley knew it was safe for us to go outin the sun. Or he didn’t, and our creator had toldhim this “four days a year” story. Or… this was

true and Diego and I had lucked into one of thosedays. Except that Diego had been out in the shadebefore. And Riley was making this into some kindof solstice-y seasonal thing, while Diego and I hadbeen safe in the daylight just four days ago.

I could understand that Riley and our creatorwould want to control us with the fear of the sun.It made sense. But why tell the truth—in a verylimited way—now?

I would bet it had to do with those scarydark-cloaks. She probably wanted to get a jumpon her deadline. The cloaked ones had notpromised to let her live when we killed all theyellow-eyes. I guessed she would be off like ashot the second she’d accomplished her objectivehere. Kill the yellow-eyes and then take anextended vacation in Australia or somewhere elseon the other side of the world. And I’d bet shewasn’t going to send us engraved invitations. Iwould have to get to Diego quick so we couldbail, too. In the opposite direction from Riley andour creator. And I ought to tip Fred off. I decided

I would as soon as we had a moment alone.There was so much manipulation going on in

this one little speech, and I wasn’t sure I wascatching it all. I wished Diego were here so wecould analyze it together.

If Riley was just making up this four-daysstory on the spot, I guess I could understand why.It’s not like he could have just said, Hey, so I’velied to you for your whole lives, but now I’mtelling the truth. He wanted us to follow him intobattle today; he couldn’t undermine whatever trusthe’d earned.

“It’s right for you to be terrified at thethought,” Riley told the statues. “The reason youare all still alive is that you paid attention when Itold you to be careful. You got home on time, youdidn’t make mistakes. You let that fear make yousmart and cautious. I don’t expect you to put thatintelligent fear aside easily. I don’t expect you torun out that door on my word. But…” He lookedaround the room once. “I do expect you to followme out.”

His eyes slid away from the audience for justthe teensiest fraction of a second, touching verybriefly on something over my head.

“Watch me,” he told us. “Listen to me. Trustme. When you see that I’m okay, believe youreyes. The sun on this one day does have someinteresting effects on our skin. You’ll see. It won’thurt you in any way. I wouldn’t do anything to putyou guys in unnecessary danger. You know that.”

He started up the stairs.“Riley, can’t we just wait—,” Kristie began.“Just pay attention,” Riley cut her off, still

moving up at a measured pace. “This gives us abig advantage. The yellow-eyes know all aboutthis day, but they don’t know that we know.” Ashe was talking, he opened the door and walkedout of the basement into the kitchen. There was nolight in the well-shaded kitchen, but everyone stillshied away from the open doorway. Everyone butme. His voice continued, moving toward the frontdoor. “It takes most young vampires a while toembrace this exception—for good reason. Those

who aren’t cautious about the daylight don’t lastlong.”

I felt Fred’s eyes on me. I glanced over athim. He was staring at me urgently, as if he wantedto take off but had nowhere to go.

“It’s okay,” I whispered almost silently. “Thesun’s not going to hurt us.”

You trust him? he mouthed back at me.No way.Fred raised an eyebrow and relaxed just

slightly.I glanced behind us. What had Riley been

looking at? Nothing had changed—just somefamily pictures of dead people, a small mirror, anda cuckoo clock. Hmm. Was he checking the time?Maybe our creator had given him a deadline, too.

“’Kay, guys, I’m going out,” Riley said. “Youdon’t have to be afraid today, I promise.”

The light burst into the basement through theopen door, magnified—as only I knew—byRiley’s skin. I could see the bright reflectionsdance on the wall.

Hissing and snarling, my coven backed intothe corner opposite from Fred’s. Kristie was inthe very back. It looked like she was trying to useher gang as a kind of shield.

“Relax, everybody,” Riley called down to us.“I am absolutely fine. No pain, no burn. Come andsee. C’mon!”

No one moved closer to the door. Fred wascrouched against the wall beside me, eyeing thelight with panic. I waved my hand a tiny bit to gethis attention. He looked up at me and measuredmy total calm for a second. Slowly he straightenedup next to me. I smiled encouragingly.

Everyone else was waiting for the burn tostart. I wondered if I had looked that silly toDiego.

“You know,” Riley mused from above, “I’mcurious to see who is the bravest one of you. Ihave a good idea who the first person through thatdoor is going to be, but I’ve been wrong before.”

I rolled my eyes. Subtle, Riley.But of course it worked. Raoul started

inching his way toward the stairs almostimmediately. For once, Kristie was in no hurry tocompete with him for Riley’s approval. Raoulsnapped his fingers at Kevin, and both he and theSpider-Man kid reluctantly moved to flank him.

“You can hear me. You know I’m not fried.Don’t be a bunch of babies! You’re vampires. Actlike it.”

Still, Raoul and his buddies couldn’t getfarther than the foot of the stairs. None of theothers moved. After a few minutes, Riley cameback. In the indirect light from the front door, heshimmered just a tiny bit in the doorway.

“Look at me—I’m fine. Seriously! I’membarrassed for you. C’mere, Raoul!”

In the end, Riley had to grab Kevin—Raoulducked out of the way as soon as he could seewhat Riley was thinking—and drag him upstairs byforce. I saw the moment when they made it intothe sun, when the light brightened from theirreflections.

“Tell them, Kevin,” Riley ordered.

“I’m okay, Raoul!” Kevin called down.“Whoa. I’m all… shiny. This is crazy!” Helaughed.

“Well done, Kevin,” Riley said loudly.That did it for Raoul. He gritted his teeth and

marched up the stairs. He didn’t move fast, butsoon he was up there sparkling and laughing withKevin.

Even from then on, the process took longerthan I would have predicted. It was still a one-by-one thing. Riley got impatient. It was more threatsthan encouragement now.

Fred shot me a look that said, You knewthis?

Yes, I mouthed.He nodded and started up the stairs. There

were still about ten people, mostly Kristie’s group,huddled against the wall. I went with Fred. Betterto come out right in the middle. Let Riley read intothat what he would.

We could see the shining, disco-ballvampires in the front yard, staring at their hands

and each other’s faces with rapt expressions. Fredmoved into the light without slowing, which Ithought was pretty brave, all things considered.Kristie was a better example of how well Rileyhad indoctrinated us. She clung to what she knewregardless of the evidence in front of her.

Fred and I stood a little space from theothers. He examined himself carefully, then lookedme over, then stared at the others. It struck methat Fred, though really quiet, was very observantand almost scientific in the way he examinedevidence. He’d been evaluating Riley’s words andactions all along. How much had he figured out?

Riley had to force Kristie up the stairs, andher gang came with her. Finally we all were out inthe sun, most people enjoying how very prettythey were. Riley rounded everyone up for onemore quick practice session—mostly, I thought, toget them to focus again. It took them a minute, buteveryone started to realize that this was it, andthey got quieter and more fierce. I could see thatthe idea of a real fight—of being not only allowed

but encouraged to rip and burn—was almost asexciting as hunting. It appealed to people likeRaoul and Jen and Sara.

Riley focused on a strategy he’d been tryingto drill into them for the last few days—once we’dpinpointed the yellow-eyes’ scent, we were goingto divide in two and flank them. Raoul wouldcharge them head-on while Kristie attacked fromthe side. The plan suited both their styles, though Iwasn’t sure if they were going to be able to followthis strategy in the heat of the hunt.

When Riley called everyone together after anhour of practice, Fred immediately started walkingbackward toward the north; Riley had the othersfacing south. I stayed close, though I had no ideawhat he was doing. Fred stopped when we werea good hundred yards away, in the shade of thespruce trees on the fringe of the forest. No onewatched us move away. Fred was eyeing Riley, asif waiting to see if he would notice our retreat.

Riley began speaking. “We leave now.You’re strong and you’re ready. And you’re

thirsty for it, aren’t you? You can feel the burn.You’re ready for dessert.”

He was right. All that blood hadn’t slowedthe return of the thirst at all. In fact, I wasn’t sure,but I thought it might be coming back faster andharder than usual. Maybe overfeeding wascounterproductive in some ways.

“The yellow-eyes are coming in slowly fromthe south, feeding along the way, trying to getstronger,” Riley said. “She’s been monitoringthem, so I know where to find them. She’s goingto meet us there, with Diego”—he cast asignificant glance toward where I’d just beenstanding, and then a quick frown that disappearedjust as quickly—“and we will hit them like atsunami. We will overwhelm them easily. And thenwe will celebrate.” He smiled. “Someone’s goingto get a jump on the celebration. Raoul—give methat.” Riley held out his hand imperiously. Raoulreluctantly tossed him the bag with the shirt. Itseemed like Raoul was trying to lay claim to thegirl by hogging her scent.

“Take another whiff, everybody. Let’s getfocused!”

Focused on the girl? Or the fight?Riley himself walked the shirt around this

time, almost like he wanted to make sure everyonewas thirsty. And I could see from the reactionsthat, like me, the burn was back for them all. Thescent of the shirt made them scowl and snarl. Itwasn’t necessary to give us the scent again; weforgot nothing. So this was probably just a test.Just thinking about the girl’s scent had venompooling in my mouth.

“Are you with me?” Riley bellowed.Everyone screamed his or her assent.“Let’s take them down, kids!”It was like the barracuda again, only on land

this time.Fred didn’t move, so I stayed with him,

though I knew I was wasting time I needed. If Iwere going to get to Diego and pull him awaybefore the fighting could start, I would need to benear the front of the attack. I looked after them

anxiously. I was still younger than most of them—faster.

“Riley won’t be able to think of me for abouttwenty minutes or so,” Fred told me, his voicecasual and familiar, like we’d had a millionconversations in the past. “I’ve been gauging thetime. Even a good distance away, he’ll feel sick ifhe tries to remember me.”

“Really? That’s cool.”Fred smiled. “I’ve been practicing, keeping

track of the effects. I can make myself totallyinvisible now. No one can look at me if I don’twant them to.”

“I’ve noticed,” I said, then paused andguessed, “You’re not going?”

Fred shook his head. “Of course not. It’sobvious we’re not being told what we need toknow. I’m not going to be Riley’s pawn.”

So Fred had figured it out on his own.“I was going to take off sooner, but then I

wanted to talk to you before I left, and therehasn’t been a chance till now.”

“I wanted to talk to you, too,” I said. “Ithought you should know that Riley’s been lyingabout the sun. This four-day thing is a total crock.I think Shelly and Steve and the others figured itout, too. And there’s a lot more politics going onwith this fight than he’s told us. More than one setof enemies.” I said it fast, feeling with terribleurgency the movement of the sun, the time passing.I had to get to Diego.

“I’m not surprised,” Fred said calmly. “AndI’m out. I’m going to explore on my own, see theworld. Or I was going on my own, but then Ithought maybe you might want to come, too.You’d be pretty safe with me. No one will be ableto follow us.”

I hesitated for a second. The idea of safetywas hard to resist in that exact moment.

“I’ve got to get Diego,” I said, shaking myhead.

He nodded thoughtfully. “I get it. You know,if you’re willing to vouch for him, you can bringhim along. Seems like sometimes numbers come in

handy.”“Yes,” I agreed fervently, remembering how

vulnerable I’d felt in the tree alone with Diego asthe four cloaks had advanced.

He raised an eyebrow at my tone.“Riley is lying about at least one more

important thing,” I explained. “Be careful. Wearen’t supposed to let humans know about us.There are some kind of freaky vampires who stopcovens when they get too obvious. I’ve seen them,and you don’t want them to find you. Just keepout of sight in the day, and hunt smart.” I lookedsouth anxiously. “I have to hurry!”

He was processing my revelations solemnly.“Okay. Catch up to me if you want. I’d like tohear more. I’ll wait for you in Vancouver for oneday. I know the city. I’ll leave you a trail in…” Hethought for a second and then chuckled once.“Riley Park. You can follow it to me. But aftertwenty-four hours I’m taking off.”

“I’ll get Diego and catch up to you.”“Good luck, Bree.”

“Thanks, Fred! Good luck to you, too. I’llsee you!” I was already running.

“I hope so,” I heard him say behind me.I sprinted after the scent of the others, flying

along the ground faster than I’d ever run before. Iwas lucky that they must have paused forsomething—for Riley to yell at them, I wasguessing—because I caught them sooner than Ishould have. Or maybe Riley had rememberedFred and stopped to look for us. They wererunning at a steady pace when I reached them,semi-disciplined like last night. I tried to slide intothe group without drawing attention, but I sawRiley’s head flip around once to scan those trailingbehind. His eyes zeroed in on me, and then hestarted running faster. Did he assume Fred waswith me? Riley would never see Fred again.

It wasn’t five minutes later when everythingchanged.

Raoul caught the scent. With a wild growl hewas off. Riley had us so worked up that it tookonly the tiniest spark to set off an explosion. The

others near Raoul had the scent, too, and theneveryone went crazy. Riley’s harping on thishuman had overshadowed the rest of hisinstructions. We were hunters, not an army. Therewas no team. It was a race for blood.

Even though I knew there were a lot of lies inthe story, I couldn’t totally resist the scent.Running at the back of the pack, I had to cross it.Fresh. Strong. The human had been here recently,and she smelled so sweet. I was strong with all theblood we’d drunk last night, but it didn’t matter. Iwas thirsty. It burned.

I ran after the others, trying to keep my headclear. It was all I could do to hold back a little, tostay behind the others. The closest person to mewas Riley. He was… holding back, too?

He shouted orders, mostly the same thingrepeated. “Kristie, go around! Move around! Splitoff! Kristie, Jen! Break off!” His whole plan of thetwo-pronged ambush was self-destructing as wewatched.

Riley sped up to the main group and grabbed

Sara’s shoulder. She snapped at him as he hurledher to the left. “Go around!” he shouted. Hecaught the blond kid whose name I’d neverfigured out and shoved him into Sara, who clearlywasn’t happy with that. Kristie came out of thehunting focus long enough to realize she wassupposed to be moving strategically. She gave onefierce gaze after Raoul and then started screechingat her team.

“This way! Faster! We’ll beat them aroundand get to her first! C’mon!”

“I’m spear point with Raoul!” Riley shoutedat her, turning away.

I hesitated, still running forward. I didn’twant to be part of any “spear point,” but Kristie’steam was already turning on each other. Sara hadthe blond kid in a headlock. The sound of his headtearing off made my decision for me. I sprintedafter Riley, wondering if Sara would pause to burnthe boy who liked to play Spider-Man.

I caught up enough to see Riley ahead andfollowed at a distance until he got to Raoul’s team.

The scent made it hard to keep my mind on thethings that mattered.

“Raoul!” Riley yelled.Raoul grunted, not turning. He was totally

absorbed by the sweet scent.“I’ve got to help Kristie! I’ll meet you there!

Keep your focus!”I jerked to a stop, frozen with uncertainty.Raoul kept on, not showing any response to

Riley’s words. Riley slowed to a jog, then a walk.I should have moved, but he probably would haveheard me try to hide. He turned, a smile on hisface, and saw me.

“Bree. I thought you were with Kristie.”I didn’t respond.“I heard someone get hurt—Kristie needs

me more than Raoul,” he explained quickly.“Are you… leaving us?”Riley’s face changed. It was like I could see

his shifting tactics written on his features. His eyeswidened, suddenly anxious.

“I’m worried, Bree. I told you that she was

going to meet us, to help us, but I haven’t crossedher trail. Something’s wrong. I need to find her.”

“But there’s no way you can find her beforeRaoul gets to the yellow-eyes,” I pointed out.

“I have to find out what’s going on.” Hesounded genuinely desperate. “I need her. Iwasn’t supposed to do this alone!”

“But the others…”“Bree, I have to go find her! Now! There are

enough of you to overwhelm the yellow-eyes. I’llget back to you as soon as I can.”

He sounded so sincere. I hesitated, glancingback the way we had come. Fred would behalfway to Vancouver by now. Riley hadn’t evenasked about him. Maybe Fred’s talent was still ineffect.

“Diego’s down there, Bree,” Riley saidurgently. “He’ll be part of the first attack. Didn’tyou catch his scent back there? Did you not getclose enough?”

I shook my head, totally confused. “Diegowas there?”

“He’s with Raoul by now. If you hurry, youcan help him get out alive.”

We stared at each other for a long second,and then I looked south after Raoul’s path.

“Good girl,” Riley said. “I’ll go find her andwe’ll be back to help clean up. You guys have gotthis! It might be over by the time you get there!”

He took off in a direction perpendicular toour original path. I clenched my teeth at how surehe seemed of his way. Lying to the end.

But it didn’t feel like I had a choice. I headedsouth in a flat-out sprint again. I had to go getDiego. Drag him away if it came to that. We couldcatch up with Fred. Or take off on our own. Weneeded to run. I would tell Diego how Riley hadlied. He would see that Riley had no intention ofhelping us fight the battle he’d set up. There wasno reason to help him anymore.

I found the human’s scent and then Raoul’s. Ididn’t catch Diego’s. Was I going too fast? Orwas the human’s scent just overpowering me?Half my head was absorbed in this strangely

counterproductive hunt—sure, we would find thegirl, but would we be ready to fight together whenwe did? No, we’d be clawing each other apart toget to her.

And then I heard the snarling and screamingand screeching explode from ahead and I knewthe fight was happening and I was too late to beatDiego there. I only ran faster. Maybe I could stillsave him.

I smelled the smoke—the sweet, thick scentof vampires burning—carried back to me on thewind. The sound of mayhem was louder. Maybe itwas almost done. Would I find our covenvictorious and Diego waiting?

I dashed through a heavy fringe of smokeand found myself out of the forest in a huge grassyfield. I leaped over a rock, only to realize in theinstant I flew past it that it was a headless torso.

My eyes raked the field. There were piecesof vampires everywhere, and a huge bonfiresmoking purple into the sunny sky. Out from underthe billowing haze, I could see dazzling, glittering

bodies darting and grappling as the sounds ofvampires being torn apart went on and on.

I looked for one thing: Diego’s curly blackhair. No one I could see had hair so dark. Therewas one huge vampire with brown hair that wasalmost black, but he was too big, and as I focusedI watched him tear Kevin’s head off and pitch itinto the fire before leaping on someone else’sback. Was that Jen? There was another withstraight black hair that was too small to be Diego.That one was moving so fast I couldn’t tell if it wasa boy or a girl.

I scanned quickly again, feeling horriblyexposed. I took in the faces. There weren’t nearlyenough vampires here, even counting those thatwere down. I didn’t see any of Kristie’s group.There must have been a lot of vampires burnedalready. Most of the vampires still standing werestrangers. A blond vampire glanced at me, meetingmy gaze, and his eyes flashed gold in the sunlight.

We were losing. Bad.I started backing toward the trees, not

moving fast enough because I was still looking forDiego. He wasn’t here. There was no sign he hadever been here. No trace of his scent, though Icould distinguish the smells of most of Raoul’steam and many strangers. I had made myself lookat the pieces, too. None of them belonged toDiego. I would have recognized even a finger.

I turned and really ran for the trees, suddenlypositive that Diego’s presence here was justanother of Riley’s lies.

And if Diego wasn’t here, then he wasalready dead. This fell into place for me so easilythat I thought I must have known the truth for awhile. Since the moment that Diego had notfollowed Riley through the basement door. He’dalready been gone.

I was a few feet into the trees when a forcelike a wrecking ball hit me from behind and threwme to the ground. An arm slipped under my chin.

“Please!” I sobbed. And I meant please killme fast.

The arm hesitated. I didn’t fight back, though

my instincts were urging me to bite and claw andrip the enemy apart. The saner part of me knewthat wasn’t going to work. Riley had lied aboutthese weak, older vampires, too, and we’d neverhad a chance. But even if I’d had a way to beatthis one, I wouldn’t have been able to move.Diego was gone, and that glaring fact killed thefight in me.

Suddenly I was airborne. I crashed into atree and crumpled to the ground. I should havetried to run, but Diego was dead. I couldn’t getaround that.

The blond vampire from the clearing wasstaring intently at me, his body ready to spring. Helooked very capable, much more experienced thanRiley. But he wasn’t lunging at me. He wasn’tcrazed like Raoul or Kristie. He was totally incontrol.

“Please,” I said again, wanting him to get thisover with. “I don’t want to fight.”

Though he still held himself ready, his facechanged. He looked at me in a way I didn’t totally

get. There was a lot of knowledge in that face, andsomething else. Empathy? Pity, at least.

“Neither do I, child,” he said in a calm, kindvoice. “We are only defending ourselves.”

There was such honesty in his odd yelloweyes that it made me wonder how I had everbelieved any of Riley’s stories. I felt… guilty.Maybe this coven had never planned to attack usin Seattle. How could I trust any part of what I’dbeen told?

“We didn’t know,” I explained, somehowashamed. “Riley lied. I’m sorry.”

He listened for a moment, and I realized thatthe battlefield was quiet. It was over.

If I’d been in any doubt over who the winnerwas, that doubt was gone when, a second later, afemale vampire with wavy brown hair and yelloweyes hurried to his side.

“Carlisle?” she asked in a confused voice,staring at me.

“She doesn’t want to fight,” he told her.The woman touched his arm. He was still

tensed to spring. “She’s so frightened, Carlisle.Couldn’t we…”

The blond, Carlisle, glanced back at her, andthen he straightened up a little, though I could seehe was still wary.

“We have no wish to harm you,” the womansaid to me. She had a soft, soothing voice. “Wedidn’t want to fight any of you.”

“I’m sorry,” I whispered again.I couldn’t make sense of the mess in my

head. Diego was dead, and that was the mainthing, the devastating thing. Other than that, thefight was over, my coven had lost and my enemieshad won. But my dead coven was full of peoplewho would have loved to watch me burn, and myenemies were speaking to me kindly when theyhad no reason to. Moreover, I felt safer with thesetwo strangers than I’d ever felt with Raoul andKristie. I was relieved that Raoul and Kristie weredead. It was so confusing.

“Child,” Carlisle said, “will you surrender tous? If you do not try to harm us, we promise we

will not harm you.”And I believed him.“Yes,” I whispered. “Yes, I surrender. I

don’t want to hurt anybody.”He held out his hand encouragingly. “Come,

child. Let our family regroup for a moment, thenwe’ll have some questions for you. If you answerhonestly, you have nothing to fear.”

I got up slowly, making no movements thatcould be considered threatening.

“Carlisle?” a male voice called.And then another yellow-eyed vampire

joined us. Any sort of safety I’d felt with thesestrangers vanished as soon as I saw him.

He was blond, like the first, but taller andleaner. His skin was absolutely covered in scars,spaced most thickly together on his neck and jaw.A few small marks on his arm were fresh, but therest were not from the brawl today. He had beenin more fights than I could have imagined, andhe’d never lost. His tawny eyes blazed and hisstance exuded the barely contained violence of an

angry lion.As soon as he saw me he coiled to spring.“Jasper!” Carlisle warned.Jasper pulled up short and stared at Carlisle

with wide eyes. “What’s going on?”“She doesn’t want to fight. She’s

surrendered.”The scarred vampire’s brow clouded, and

suddenly I felt an unexpected surge of frustration,though I had no idea what I was frustrated with.

“Carlisle, I…” He hesitated, then continued,“I’m sorry, but that’s not possible. We can’t haveany of these newborns associated with us whenthe Volturi come. Do you realize the danger thatwould put us in?”

I didn’t understand exactly what he wassaying, but I got enough. He wanted to kill me.

“Jasper, she’s only a child,” the womanprotested. “We can’t just murder her in coldblood!”

It was strange to hear her speak like we bothwere people, like murder was a bad thing. An

avoidable thing.“It’s our family on the line here, Esme. We

can’t afford to have them think we broke thisrule.”

The woman, Esme, walked between me andthe one who wanted to kill me. Incomprehensibly,she turned her back to me.

“No. I won’t stand for it.”Carlisle shot me an anxious glance. I could

see that he cared a lot for this woman. I wouldhave looked the same way at anyone behindDiego’s back. I tried to appear as docile as I felt.

“Jasper, I think we have to take the chance,”he said slowly. “We are not the Volturi. We followtheir rules, but we do not take lives lightly. We willexplain.”

“They might think we created our ownnewborns in defense.”

“But we didn’t. And even had we, there wasno indiscretion here, only in Seattle. There is nolaw against creating vampires if you control them.”

“This is too dangerous.”

Carlisle touched Jasper’s shouldertentatively. “Jasper. We cannot kill this child.”

Jasper glowered at the man with the kindeyes, and I was suddenly angry. Surely hewouldn’t hurt this gentle vampire or the woman heloved. Then Jasper sighed, and I knew it wasokay. My anger evaporated.

“I don’t like this,” he said, but he wascalmer. “At least let me take charge of her. Youtwo don’t know how to deal with someone who’sbeen running wild so long.”

“Of course, Jasper,” the woman said. “Butbe kind.”

Jasper rolled his eyes. “We need to be withthe others. Alice said we don’t have long.”

Carlisle nodded. He held his hand out toEsme, and they headed past Jasper back towardthe open field.

“You there,” Jasper said to me, his face aglower again. “Come with us. Don’t make onerash move or I will take you down.”

I felt angry again as he glared at me, and a

small part of me wanted to snarl and show myteeth, but I had a feeling he was looking for justthat kind of excuse.

Jasper paused as if he’d just thought ofsomething. “Close your eyes,” he commanded.

I hesitated. Had he decided to kill me afterall?

“Do it!”I gritted my teeth and shut my eyes. I felt

twice as helpless as I had before.“Follow the sound of my voice and don’t

open your eyes. You look, you lose, got it?”I nodded, wondering what he didn’t want me

to see. I felt some relief that he was bothering toprotect a secret. There was no reason to do so ifhe was just going to kill me.

“This way.”I walked slowly after him, careful to give him

no excuses. He was considerate in the way he led,not walking me into any trees, at least. I couldhear the way the sound changed when we were inthe open; the feel of the wind was different, too,

and the smell of my coven burning was stronger. Icould feel the warmth of the sun on my face, andthe insides of my eyelids were brighter as Isparkled.

He led me closer and closer to the muffledcrackle of the flames, so close that I could feel thesmoke brush my skin. I knew he could have killedme at any time, but the nearness of the fire stillmade me nervous.

“Sit here. Eyes closed.”The ground was warm from the sun and the

fire. I kept very still and tried to concentrate onlooking harmless, but I could feel his glare on me,and it made me agitated. Though I was not mad atthese vampires, who I truly believed had only beendefending themselves, I felt the oddest stirrings offury. It was almost outside myself, as if it weresome leftover echo from the battle that had justtaken place.

The anger didn’t make me stupid, though,because I was too sad—miserable to my core.Diego was aways in my mind, and I couldn’t help

thinking about how he must have died.I was sure there was no way he would have

voluntarily told Riley our secrets—secrets that hadgiven me a reason to trust Riley just enough until itwas too late. In my head, I saw Riley’s face again—that cold, smooth expression that had formed ashe’d threatened to punish any of us who wouldn’tbehave. I heard again his macabre and oddlydetailed description—when I take you to her andhold you as she tears off your legs and thenslowly, slowly burns off your fingers, ears, lips,tongue, and every other superfluous appendageone by one.

I realized now that I’d been hearing thedescription of Diego’s death.

That night, I’d been sure that something hadchanged in Riley. Killing Diego was what hadchanged Riley, had hardened him. I believed onlyone thing that Riley had ever told me: he hadvalued Diego more than any of the rest of us. Hadeven been fond of him. And yet he’d watched ourcreator hurt him. No doubt he’d helped her. Killed

Diego with her.I wondered how much pain it would have

taken to make me betray Diego. I imagined itwould have taken quite a lot. And I was sure ithad taken at least that much to make Diego betrayme.

I felt sick. I wanted the image of Diegoscreaming in agony out of my head, but it wouldn’tleave.

And then there was screaming there in thefield.

My eyelids fluttered, but Jasper snarledfuriously and I clenched them together at once. I’dseen nothing but heavy lavender smoke.

I heard shouting and a strange, savagehowling. It was loud, and there was a lot of it. Icouldn’t imagine how a face would have to contortto create such a noise, and the not knowing madethe sound more frightening. These yellow-eyedvampires were so different from the rest of us. Ordifferent from me, I guess, since I was the onlyone left. Riley and our creator were long gone by

now.I heard names called, Jacob, Leah, Sam.

There were lots of distinct voices, though thehowls continued. Of course Riley had lied to usabout the number of vampires here, too.

The sound of the howling tapered off until itwas just one voice, one agonized, inhumanyowling that made me grit my teeth. I could seeDiego’s face so clearly in my mind, and the soundwas like him screaming.

I heard Carlisle talking over the other voicesand the howling. He was begging to look atsomething. “Please let me take a look. Please letme help.” I didn’t hear anyone arguing with him,but for some reason his tone made it sound like hewas losing the dispute.

And then the yowling reached a strident newpitch, and suddenly Carlisle was saying “thankyou” in a fervent voice, and under the yowl therewas the sound of a lot of movement by a lot ofbodies. Many heavy footsteps coming closer.

I listened harder and heard something

unexpected and impossible. Along with someheavy breathing—and I’ve never heard anyone inmy coven breathe like that—there were dozens ofdeep thumping noises. Almost like… heartbeats.But definitely not human hearts. I knew thatparticular sound well. I sniffed hard, but the windwas blowing from the other direction, and I couldonly smell the smoke.

Without a warning sound, something touchedme, clapped down firmly on either side of myhead.

My eyes started open in panic as I lurchedup, straining to jerk free of this hold, and instantlymet Jasper’s warning gaze about two inches frommy face.

“Stop it,” he snapped, yanking me backdown on my butt. I could only just hear him, and Irealized that his hands were sealed tight against myhead, covering my ears entirely.

“Close your eyes,” he instructed again,probably at a normal volume, but it was hushedfor me.

I struggled to calm myself and shut my eyesagain. There were things they didn’t want me tohear, either. I could live with that—if it meant Icould live.

For a second I saw Fred’s face behind myeyelids. He had said he would wait for one day. Iwondered if he would keep his word. I wished Icould tell him the truth about the yellow-eyes, andhow much more there seemed to be that we didn’tknow. This whole world that we really knewnothing about.

It would be interesting to explore that world.Particularly with someone who could make meinvisible and safe.

But Diego was gone. He wouldn’t be comingto find Fred with me. That made imagining thefuture faintly repugnant.

I could still hear some of what was going on,but just the howling and a few voices. Whateverthose weird thumping sounds had been, they weretoo muted now for me to examine them.

I did make out the words when, a few

minutes later, Carlisle said, “You have to…”—hisvoice was too low for a second, and then—“…from here now. If we could help we would, butwe cannot leave.”

There was a growl, but it was oddlyunmenacing. The yowling became a low whine thatdisappeared slowly, as if it was moving away fromme.

It was quiet for a few minutes. I heard somelow voices, Carlisle and Esme among them, butalso some I didn’t know. I wished I could smellsomething—the blindness combined with themuted sound left me straining for some source ofsensory information. But all I could smell was thehorribly sweet smoke.

There was one voice, higher and clearer thanthe others, that I could hear most easily.

“Another five minutes,” I heard whoever itwas say. I was sure it was a girl who wasspeaking. “And Bella will open her eyes in thirty-seven seconds. I wouldn’t doubt that she can hearus now.”

I tried to make sense of this. Was someoneelse being forced to keep her eyes shut, like me?Or did she think my name was Bella? I hadn’t toldanyone my name. I struggled again to smellsomething.

More mumbling. I thought that one voicesounded off—I couldn’t hear any ring to it at all.But I couldn’t be sure with Jasper’s hands sosecurely over my ears.

“Three minutes,” the high, clear voice said.Jasper’s hands left my head.“You’d better open your eyes now,” he told

me from a few steps away. The way he said thisfrightened me. I looked around myself quickly,searching for the danger hinted at in his tone.

One whole field of my vision was obscuredby the dark smoke. Close by, Jasper wasfrowning. His teeth were gritted together and hewas looking at me with an expression that wasalmost… frightened. Not like he was scared ofme, but like he was scared because of me. Iremembered what he’d said before, about my

putting them in danger with something called aVolturi. I wondered what a Volturi was. I couldn’timagine what this scarred-up, dangerous vampirewould be afraid of.

Behind Jasper, four vampires were spacedout in a loose line with their backs to me. One wasEsme. With her were a tall blonde woman, a tinyblack-haired girl, and a dark-haired male vampireso big that he was scary just to look at—the oneI’d seen kill Kevin. For an instant I imagined thatvampire getting a hold on Raoul. It was a strangelypleasant picture.

There were three more vampires behind thebig one. I couldn’t see exactly what they weredoing with him in the way. Carlisle was kneelingon the ground, and next to him was a malevampire with dark red hair. Lying flat on theground was another figure, but I couldn’t seemuch of that one, only jeans and small brownboots. It was either a female or a young male. Iwondered if they were putting the vampire backtogether.

So eight yellow-eyes total, plus all thathowling before, whatever strange kind of vampirethat had been; there had been at least eight morevoices involved. Sixteen, maybe more. More thantwice as many as Riley had told us to expect.

I found myself fiercely hoping that thoseblack-cloaked vampires would catch up to Riley,and that they would make him suffer.

The vampire on the ground started to getslowly to her feet—moving awkwardly, almostlike she was some clumsy human.

The breeze shifted, blowing the smokeacross me and Jasper. For a moment, everythingwas invisible except for him. Though I was not asblind as before, I suddenly felt much moreanxious, for some reason. It was like I could feelthe anxiety bleeding out of the vampire next to me.

The light wind gusted back in the nextsecond, and I could see and smell everything.

Jasper hissed at me furiously and shoved meout of my crouch and back onto the ground.

It was her—the human I’d been hunting just

a few minutes ago. The scent my whole body hadbeen focused toward. The sweet, wet scent of themost delicious blood I’d ever tracked. My mouthand throat felt like they were on fire.

I tried wildly to hold on to my reason—tofocus on the fact that Jasper was just waiting forme to jump up again so that he could kill me—butonly part of me could do it. I felt like I was aboutto pull into two halves trying to keep myself here.

The human named Bella stared at me withstunned brown eyes. Looking at her made itworse. I could see the blood flushing through herthin skin. I tried to look anywhere else, but myeyes kept circling back to her.

The redhead spoke to her in a low voice.“She surrendered. That’s one I’ve never seenbefore. Only Carlisle would think of offering.Jasper doesn’t approve.”

Carlisle must have explained to that onewhen my ears were covered.

The vampire had both his arms around thehuman girl, and she had both hands pressed to his

chest. Her throat was just inches from his mouth,but she didn’t look frightened of him at all. And hedidn’t look like he was hunting. I had tried to wrapmy head around the idea of a coven with a pethuman, but this was not close to what I hadimagined. If she’d been a vampire, I would haveguessed that they were together.

“Is Jasper all right?” the human whispered.“He’s fine. The venom stings,” the vampire

said.“He was bitten?” she asked, sounding

shocked by the idea.Who was this girl? Why did the vampires

allow her to be with them? Why hadn’t they killedher yet? Why did she seem so comfortable withthem, like they didn’t scare her? She seemed likeshe was a part of this world, and yet she didn’tunderstand its realities. Of course Jasper wasbitten. He’d just fought—and destroyed—myentire coven. Did this girl even know what wewere?

Ugh, the burn in my throat was impossible! I

tried not to think about washing it away with herblood, but the wind was blowing her smell right inmy face! It was too late to keep my head—I hadscented the prey I was hunting, and nothing couldchange that now.

“He was trying to be everywhere at once,”the redhead told the human. “Trying to make sureAlice had nothing to do, actually.” He shook hishead as he looked at the tiny black-haired girl.“Alice doesn’t need anyone’s help.”

The vampire named Alice shot a glare atJasper. “Overprotective fool,” she said in her clearsoprano voice. Jasper met her stare with a halfsmile, seeming to forget for a second that Iexisted.

I could barely fight the instinct that wantedme to make use of his lapse and spring at thehuman girl. It would take less than an instant andthen her warm blood—blood I could hearpumping through her heart—would quench theburn. She was so close—

The vampire with the dark red hair met my

eyes with a fierce warning glare, and I knew Iwould die if I tried for the girl, but the agony in mythroat made me feel like I would die if I didn’t. Ithurt so much that I screamed out loud infrustration.

Jasper snarled at me, and I tried to keepmyself from moving, but it felt like the scent of herblood was a giant hand yanking me off the ground.I had never tried to stop myself from feeding onceI had committed to a hunt. I dug my hands into theground looking for something to hold on to butfinding nothing. Jasper leaned into a crouch, andeven knowing I was two seconds from death, Icouldn’t focus my thirsty thoughts.

And then Carlisle was right there, his hand onJasper’s arm. He looked at me with kind, calmeyes. “Have you changed your mind, young one?”he asked me. “We don’t want to destroy you, butwe will if you can’t control yourself.”

“How can you stand it?” I asked him, almostbegging. Wasn’t he burning, too? “I want her.” Istared at her, desperately wishing the distance

between us was gone. My fingers raked uselesslythrough the rocky dirt.

“You must stand it,” Carlisle said solemnly.“You must exercise control. It is possible, and it isthe only thing that will save you now.”

If being able to tolerate the human the waythese strange vampires did was my only hope forsurvival, then I was already doomed. I couldn’tstand the fire. And I was of two minds aboutsurvival anyway. I didn’t want to die, I didn’t wantpain, but what was the point? Everyone else wasdead. Diego had been dead for days.

His name was right on my lips. I almostwhispered it aloud. Instead, I gripped my skullwith both hands and tried to think about somethingthat wouldn’t hurt. Not the girl, and not Diego. Itdidn’t work very well.

“Shouldn’t we move away from her?” thehuman whispered roughly, breaking myconcentration. My eyes snapped back to her. Herskin was so thin and soft. I could see the pulse inher neck.

“We have to stay here,” said the vampire shewas clinging to. “They are coming to the north endof the clearing now.”

They? I glanced to the north, but there wasnothing but smoke. Did he mean Riley and mycreator? I felt a new thrill of panic, followed by alittle spasm of hope. There was no way she andRiley could stand against these vampires who hadkilled so many of us, was there? Even if the howlyones were gone, Jasper alone looked capable ofdealing with the two of them.

Or did he mean this mysterious Volturi?The wind teased the girl’s scent across my

face again, and my thoughts scattered. I glared ather thirstily.

The girl met my stare, but her expression wasso different from what it should have been. ThoughI could feel that my lips were curled back from myteeth, though I trembled with the effort to stopmyself from springing at her, she did not lookafraid of me. Instead she seemed fascinated. Italmost looked like she wanted to speak to me—

like she had a question she wanted me to answer.Then Carlisle and Jasper began to back

away from the fire—and me—closing ranks withthe others and the human. They all were staringpast me into the smoke, so whatever they wereafraid of was closer to me than it was to them. Ihuddled tighter to the smoke in spite of the nearbyflames. Should I make a run for it? Were theydistracted enough that I could escape? Wherewould I go? To Fred? Off on my own? To findRiley and make him pay for what he’d done toDiego?

As I hesitated, mesmerized by that last idea,the moment passed. I heard movement to thenorth and knew I was sandwiched between theyellow-eyes and whatever was coming.

“Hmm,” a dead voice said from behind thesmoke.

In that one syllable I knew exactly who itwas, and if I hadn’t been frozen solid withmindless terror I would have bolted.

It was the dark-cloaks.

What did this mean? Would a new battlebegin now? I knew that the dark-cloakedvampires had wanted my creator to succeed indestroying these yellow-eyes. My creator hadclearly failed. Did that mean they would kill her?Or would they kill Carlisle and Esme and the resthere instead? If it had been my choice, I knewwho I would want destroyed, and it wasn’t mycaptors.

The dark-cloaks ghosted through the vaporto face the yellow-eyes. None of them looked inmy direction. I held absolutely still.

There were only four of them, like last time.But it didn’t make a difference that there wereseven of the yellow-eyes. I could tell that theywere as wary of these dark-cloaks as Riley andmy creator had been. There was something moreto them than I could see, but I could definitely feelit. These were the punishers, and they didn’t lose.

“Welcome, Jane,” said the yellow-eyed onewho held the human.

They knew each other. But the redhead’s

voice was not friendly—nor was it weak andeager to please like Riley’s had been, or furiouslyterrified like my creator’s. His voice was simplycold and polite and unsurprised. Were the dark-cloaks this Volturi, then?

The small vampire who led the dark-cloaks—Jane, apparently—slowly scanned across theseven yellow-eyes and the human, and then finallyturned her head toward me. I glimpsed her facefor the first time. She was younger than me, butmuch older, too, I guessed. Her eyes were thevelvet color of dark red roses. Knowing it was toolate to escape notice, I put my head down,covering it with my hands. Maybe if it were clearthat I didn’t want to fight, Jane would treat me asCarlisle had. I didn’t feel much hope of that,though.

“I don’t understand.” Jane’s dead voicebetrayed a hint of annoyance.

“She has surrendered,” the redheadexplained.

“Surrendered?” Jane snapped.

I peeked up to see the dark-cloaksexchanging glances. The redhead had said thathe’d never seen anyone surrender before. Maybethe dark-cloaks hadn’t, either.

“Carlisle gave her the option,” the redheadsaid. He seemed to be the spokesperson for theyellow-eyes, though I thought Carlisle might be theleader.

“There are no options for those who breakthe rules,” Jane said, her voice dead again.

My bones felt like ice, but I didn’t feelpanicked anymore. It all seemed so inevitablenow.

Carlisle answered Jane in a soft voice.“That’s in your hands. As long as she was willingto halt her attack on us, I saw no need to destroyher. She was never taught.”

Though his words were neutral, I almostthought he was pleading for me. But, as he hadsaid, my fate was not up to him.

“That is irrelevant,” Jane confirmed.“As you wish.”

Jane was staring at Carlisle with anexpression that was half confusion and halffrustration. She shook her head, and her face wasunreadable again.

“Aro hoped that we would get far enoughwest to see you, Carlisle,” she said. “He sends hisregards.”

“I would appreciate it if you would conveymine to him,” he answered.

Jane smiled. “Of course.” Then she looked atme again, with the corners of her mouth still slightlyholding the smile. “It appears that you’ve done ourwork for us today… for the most part. Just out ofprofessional curiosity, how many were there?They left quite a wake of destruction in Seattle.”

She spoke of jobs and professionals. I wasright, then, that it was her profession to punish.And if there were punishers, then there must berules. Carlisle had said before, We follow theirrules, and also, There is no law against creatingvampires if you control them. Riley and my creatorhad been afraid but not exactly surprised by the

arrival of the dark-cloaks, these Volturi. Theyknew about the laws, and they knew they werebreaking them. Why hadn’t they told us? Andthere were more Volturi than just these four.Someone named Aro and probably many more.There must have been a lot for everyone to fearthem so much.

Carlisle answered Jane’s question. “Eighteen,including this one.”

There was a barely audible murmur amongthe four dark-cloaks.

“Eighteen?” Jane repeated, a note of surprisein her voice. Our creator had never told Jane howmany of us she’d created. Was Jane reallysurprised, or just faking it?

“All brand-new,” Carlisle said. “They wereunskilled.”

Unskilled and uninformed, thanks to Riley. Iwas beginning to get a sense of how these oldervampires viewed us. Newborn, Jasper had calledme. Like a baby.

“All?” Jane snapped. “Then who was their

creator?”As if they hadn’t already been introduced.

This Jane was a bigger liar than Riley, and she wasso much better at it than he was.

“Her name was Victoria,” the redheadanswered.

How did he know that when even I didn’t? Iremembered that Riley had said there was a mindreader in this group. Was that how they kneweverything? Or was that another of Riley’s lies?

“Was?” Jane asked.The redhead jerked his head toward the east

like he was pointing. I looked up and saw a cloudof thick lilac smoke billowing from the side of themountain.

Was. I felt a similar kind of pleasure to whatI’d felt imagining the big vampire shredding Raoul.Only much, much greater.

“This Victoria,” Jane asked slowly. “She wasin addition to the eighteen here?”

“Yes,” the redhead confirmed. “She had onlyone other with her. He was not as young as this

one here, but no older than a year.”Riley. My fierce pleasure intensified. If—

okay, when—I died today, at least I didn’t leavethat loose thread. Diego had been avenged. Ialmost smiled.

“Twenty,” Jane breathed. Either this wasmore than she had expected, or she was a killeractress. “Who dealt with the creator?”

“I did,” the redhead said coldly.Whoever this vampire was, whether he kept

a pet human or no, he was a friend of mine. Evenif he were the one to kill me in the end, I wouldstill owe him.

Jane turned to stare at me with narrowedeyes.

“You there,” she snarled. “Your name.”I was dead anyway, according to her. So

why give this lying vampire anything she wanted? Ijust glared at her.

Jane smiled at me, the bright, happy smile ofan innocent child, and suddenly I was on fire. Itwas like I’d gone back in time to the worst night

of my life. Fire was in every vein of my body,covering every inch of my skin, gnawing throughthe marrow of every bone. It felt like I was buriedin the middle of my coven’s funeral bonfire, withthe flames on every side. There wasn’t a single cellin my body that wasn’t blazing with the worstagony imaginable. I could barely hear myselfscream over the pain in my ears.

“Your name,” Jane said again, and as shespoke the fire disappeared. Gone like that, as ifI’d only been imagining it.

“Bree,” I said as fast as I could, still gaspingthough the pain wasn’t there anymore.

Jane smiled again and the fire waseverywhere. How much pain would it take beforeI would die of it? The screams didn’t even feel likethey were coming from me anymore. Whywouldn’t someone rip my head off? Carlisle waskind enough for that, wasn’t he? Or whoever theirmind reader was. Couldn’t he or she understandand make this stop?

“She’ll tell you anything you want to know,”

the redhead growled. “You don’t have to do that.”The pain vanished again, like Jane had turned

off a light switch. I found myself facedown on theground, panting as if I needed air.

“Oh, I know,” I heard Jane say cheerfully.“Bree?”

I shuddered when she called my name, butthe pain didn’t start again.

“Is his story true?” she asked me. “Werethere twenty of you?”

The words flew out of my mouth. “Nineteenor twenty, maybe more, I don’t know! Sara andthe one whose name I don’t know got in a fight onthe way….”

I waited for the pain to punish me for nothaving a better answer, but instead Jane spokeagain.

“And this Victoria—did she create you?”“I don’t know,” I admitted fearfully. “Riley

never said her name. I didn’t see that night… itwas so dark, and it hurt!” I flinched. “He didn’twant us to be able to think of her. He said that our

thoughts weren’t safe.”Jane shot a glance at the redhead, then

looked at me again.“Tell me about Riley,” Jane said. “Why did

he bring you here?”I recited Riley’s lies as quickly as I could.

“Riley told us that we had to destroy the strangeyellow-eyes here. He said it would be easy. Hesaid that the city was theirs, and they were comingto get us. He said once they were gone, all theblood would be ours. He gave us her scent.” Ipointed in the human’s direction. “He said wewould know that we had the right coven, becauseshe would be with them. He said whoever got toher first could have her.”

“It looks like Riley was wrong about the easypart,” Jane said, a hint of teasing in her tone.

It seemed like Jane was pleased with mystory. In a flash of insight, I understood that shewas relieved Riley hadn’t told me or the othersabout her little visit to our creator. Victoria. Thiswas the story she wanted the yellow-eyes to know

—the story that didn’t implicate Jane or the dark-cloaked Volturi. Well, I could play along.Hopefully the mind reader was already in theknow.

I couldn’t physically take revenge on thismonster, but I could tell the yellow-eyeseverything with my thoughts. I hoped.

I nodded, agreeing with Jane’s little joke,and sat up because I wanted the mind reader’sattention, whoever that was. I continued with theversion of the story that any other member of mycoven would have been able to give. I pretended Iwas Kevin. Dumb as a bag of rocks and totallyignorant.

“I don’t know what happened.” That partwas true. The mess on the battlefield was still amystery. I’d never seen any of Kristie’s group.Did the secret howler vampires get them? I wouldkeep that secret for the yellow-eyes. “We split up,but the others never came. And Riley left us, andhe didn’t come to help like he promised. And thenit was so confusing, and everybody was in

pieces.” I flinched at the memory of the torso I’dhurdled. “I was afraid. I wanted to run away.” Inodded at Carlisle. “That one said they wouldn’thurt me if I stopped fighting.”

This wasn’t betraying Carlisle in any way.He’d already told Jane as much.

“Ah, but that wasn’t his gift to offer, youngone,” Jane said. She sounded like she wasenjoying herself. “Broken rules demand aconsequence.”

Still pretending I was Kevin, I just stared ather as if I were too stupid to understand.

Jane looked at Carlisle. “Are you sure yougot all of them? The other half that split off?”

Carlisle nodded. “We split up, too.”So it was the howlers that got Kristie. I

hoped that, whatever else they were, the howlerswere really, really terrifying. Kristie deserved that.

“I can’t deny that I’m impressed,” Jane said,sounding sincere, and I thought that this wasprobably the truth. Jane had been hopeful thatVictoria’s army would do some damage here, and

we’d clearly failed.“Yes,” the three vampires behind Jane all

agreed quietly.“I’ve never seen a coven escape this

magnitude of offensive intact,” Jane continued.“Do you know what was behind it? It seems likeextreme behavior, considering the way you livehere. And why was the girl the key?” Her eyesflicked to the human for just a moment.

“Victoria held a grudge against Bella,” theredhead told her.

So the strategy finally made sense. Riley justwanted the girl dead and didn’t care how many ofus died to get it done.

Jane laughed happily. “This one”—and shesmiled at the human the way she’d smiled at me—“seems to bring out bizarrely strong reactions inour kind.”

Nothing happened to the girl. Maybe Janedidn’t want to hurt her. Or maybe her horribletalent only worked on vampires.

“Would you please not do that?” the redhead

asked in a controlled but furious voice.Jane laughed again. “Just checking. No harm

done, apparently.”I tried to keep my expression Kevin-ish and

not betray my interest. So Jane couldn’t hurt thisgirl the way she’d hurt me, and this was not anormal thing for Jane. Though Jane was laughingabout it, I could tell it was driving her crazy. Wasthis why the human girl was tolerated by theyellow-eyes? But if she was special in some way,why didn’t they just change her into a vampire?

“Well, it appears that there’s not much leftfor us to do,” Jane said, her voice a deadmonotone again. “Odd. We’re not used to beingrendered unnecessary. It’s too bad we missed thefight. It sounds like it would have been entertainingto watch.”

“Yes,” the redhead retorted. “And you wereso close. It’s a shame you didn’t arrive just a halfhour earlier. Perhaps then you could have fulfilledyour purpose here.”

I fought a smile. So the redhead was the

mind reader, and he’d heard everything I’dwanted him to hear. Jane wasn’t getting away withanything.

Jane stared back at the mind reader with ablank expression. “Yes. Quite a pity how thingsturned out, isn’t it?”

The mind reader nodded, and I wonderedwhat he was hearing in Jane’s head.

Jane turned her blank face to me now. Therewas nothing in her eyes, but I could feel that mytime had run out. She’d gotten what she neededfrom me. She didn’t know that I’d also given themind reader everything I could. And protected hiscoven’s secrets, too. I owed him that. He’dpunished Riley and Victoria for me.

I glanced at him from the corner of my eyeand thought, Thanks.

“Felix?” Jane said lazily.“Wait,” the mind reader said loudly.He turned to Carlisle and spoke quickly.

“We could explain the rules to the young one. Shedoesn’t seem unwilling to learn. She didn’t know

what she was doing.”“Of course,” Carlisle said eagerly, looking at

Jane. “We would certainly be prepared to takeresponsibility for Bree.”

Jane’s face looked like she wasn’t sure ifthey were joking, but if they were joking, theywere funnier than she’d given them credit for.

Me, I was touched to the core. Thesevampires were strangers, but they’d gone out onthis dangerous limb for me. I already knew itwasn’t going to work, but still.

“We don’t make exceptions,” Jane toldthem, amused. “And we don’t give secondchances. It’s bad for our reputation.”

It was like she was discussing someone else.I didn’t care that she was talking about killing me.I knew the yellow-eyes couldn’t stop her. Shewas the vampire police. But even though thevampire cops were dirty—really dirty—at leastthe yellow-eyes knew it now.

“Which reminds me…,” Jane went on, hereyes locking on the human girl again and her smile

widening. “Caius will be so interested to hear thatyou’re still human, Bella. Perhaps he’ll decide tovisit.”

Still human. So they were going to changethe girl. I wondered what they were waiting for.

“The date is set,” said the little vampire withthe short black hair and the clear voice. “Perhapswe’ll come to visit you in a few months.”

Jane’s smile disappeared like someone hadwiped it off. She shrugged without looking at theblack-haired vampire, and I got the feeling that asmuch as she might have hated the human girl, shehated this small vampire ten times as much.

Jane turned back to Carlisle with the samevacant expression as before. “It was nice to meetyou, Carlisle—I’d thought Aro was exaggerating.Well, until we meet again…”

This would be it, then. I still didn’t feel afraid.My only regret was that I couldn’t tell Fred moreabout all of this. He was going almost totally blindinto this world full of dangerous politics and dirtycops and secret covens. But Fred was smart and

careful and talented. What could they do to him ifthey couldn’t even see him? Maybe the yellow-eyes would meet Fred someday. Be nice to him,please, I thought at the mind reader.

“Take care of that, Felix,” Jane saidindifferently, nodding at me. “I want to go home.”

“Don’t watch,” the redheaded mind readerwhispered.

I closed my eyes.

The Short SecondLife of Bree Tanner

Acknowledgments

As always, I am very grateful to all thepeople who made this book possible: my boys,Gabe, Seth, and Eli; my husband, Pancho; myparents, Stephen and Candy; my very supportivegirlfriends Jen H., Jen L., Meghan, Nic, andShelly; my ninja agent, Jodi Reamer; my “baffy,”Shannon Hale; all my friends and mentors at Little,Brown, most especially David Young, AsyaMuchnick, Megan Tingley, Elizabeth Eulberg, GailDoobinin, Andrew Smith, and Tina McIntyre; and,saving the best for last, my readers.

You’re the best audience anyone could have.Thank you!

Table of ContentsThe Short Second Life of Bree TannerINTRODUCTIONThe Short Second Life of Bree TannerAcknowledgments